It is with great sadness that I write to let you know that Professor Margaret M. McGowan, CBE, Fellow of the British Academy and Research professor at the University of Sussex, died in the late evening of Wednesday 16 March. As you will know, Margaret was a co-founder of SEFR as well as a co-general-editor of the ‘European Festival Studies, 1450–1700’ Series (now with Brepols). She will be greatly missed. Margaret’s research began as a doctoral student of Frances A. Yates at the Warburg Institute, University of London. Her love of interdisciplinary topics relating to the intellectual, cultural and artistic concerns of early modern Europe resulted in numerous publications, many on French topics, festivals and dance. She has been a great inspiration to so many of us, with her meticulous attention to detail, her sense of fun and her lively and perceptive interventions at numerous conferences as well as in her work on our Series. Margaret Shewring.