In 2009 Michael (Mick) Perkins became Emeritus Professor in the Department of Human Communication Sciences at the University of Sheffield, the department he joined in 1990 and in which he held a personal chair in clinical linguistics from 2003. To mark this transition a symposium on clinical linguistics was held in Mick’s honour at the University of Sheffield on March 12, 2010. The symposium was organised by Richard Body, Sara Howard and Bill Wells. The event reflected very well Mick’s contribution to clinical linguistics, the inspiration he has been to his students and the esteem in which he is held by his colleagues. Several of the papers in this special issue are developments of work presented at that symposium and which Mick commented on with his characteristic flare and insight at the time.
We owe our thanks to several people in connection with this special issue, in addition to those who contributed papers: the anonymous reviewers of each article, Sara Howard who provided input and guidance at various points and in various ways, and the editors of Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics for allowing us to celebrate Mick’s contribution to clinical linguistics in this way. And of course to Mick, for providing the impetus for the special issue in the first place.