Kim was a friend and colleague of mine at Oxford University Press during the 1980s. She was a great person and a great publisher. She died at a ridiculously young age but her memory is kept alive by the annual award of a prize which recognises the professional achievements of women in publishing. The shortlist was announced in April and last night I went to St Anne's College in Oxford for the award celebration overseen by Tim Gardam who was Kim's husband and is now Principal of the college. To my - and I suspect many people's - delight Annette Thomas, Managing Director of Nature Publishing Group won in what was a very strong field (as reported in the Guardian today). It is a tribute to everything that she and the fantastic team at NPG have achieved over the last few years. I am certain that Kim would have approved of the choice.
While on success, I'd like to point you to this anniversary review of Macmillan New Writing and I can assure you that this is not the result of backscratching or any other underhand measure.
For those of us who remember the glory days of sales to Nigeria in the 1970s this vignette from an old Nigeria hand returning to one of Macmillan's outlying offices will ring a bell.
'A reassuring scene, though: a dusty entrance lobby with pealing lino tiles and segments of spaghetti-type wiring; battleship grey paintwork (always so encouraging I find); a receptionist reading a two-day old copy of the Daily Times plus a grubby Mills & Boon novel; a fading picture of the late Supermac hung at a rakish angle but so high up you had to positively seek him (o tempora! o mores! o winds of change! - nothing had changed in this lobby for years); the MD's ante-chamber crammed with cheap Asian wall clocks and support staff with little to do pending the arrival of the MD but read newspapers and seek soul-mates on the web; and the car park full of sound and fury, drivers and reps, but little if any sign of coordinated activity ...'
And to finish, a sort of review of this blog which leaves me wondering whether to be flattered or offended.