We are delighted to be celebrating 45 years of publication of the British Journal of Hospital Medicine. The first issue was published in October 1966 (see right) and its introductory editorial is reproduced on p. 546-7. Here we have some brief thoughts from Professor John Blandy, one of the original members of the editorial board, from Mark Allen, the publisher who took the journal over from its previous publishers Thomson in 1985, and from Professor Rob Miller and Rebecca Linssen, the current Editor-in-Chief and Editor.