T'zer
T'zer. But is that pronounced T'zer or T'zer? We asked
T'zer herself to clarify the situation:
"Neither. It's T'zer."
So there you are. T'zer, less commonly known as Teresa Maughan, was possibly one of the most famous YS eds. Even after leaving YS, T'zer managed to blag a column in Pssst! called, unsurprisingly, "T-Zer's". She probably didn't write it, but that wasn't the point. When Matt Bielby took over the letters page, T'zer still managed to slip in the odd comment either directed at Matt (when he was bashing T'zer), or directed at the author of the letter (when they were bashing T'zer). The end result was some largely irrelevant Matt - T'zer commentary taking up more space in the letters page, than the letters themselves.
Quite obviously the face behind every YS reader's favourite Agony Aunt, T'zer also appeared to play the part of Aunty Madge in order to con Speccy owners into buying vastly overpriced YS merchandise. Her disguise was fatally flawed, and only the most trusting YS readers (a total of about two people) ever bought the crap YS t-shirts.
T'zer, however, really caught the hearts of millions* of YS readers, with her entry in YS's "Peculiar Pets" corner. Her pet parrot (top-right), although cute, somehow didn't seem, well, normal...
Snouty writes: Teresa Maughan "T'Zer" still works for Dennis Publishing titles as a freelance editor, although she works from home so she can take care of her kids. She married art editor Jimmy Egerton.
* This is, of course, an approximate figure