Nosy Crow's Blog, page 181

Shifty and Sam at the Hay Festival!

Today’s guest blog (re-posted from The Robber Dog Blog) is by Steven Lenton, illustrator of Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam, on performing at this year’s Hay Festival.

Shifty, Sam, myself and Tracey are all still in a Hay-riffic stupor after a wonderful time at this year’s Hay Festival.

We were honoured to be invited onto The Starlight Stage to share Shifty and Sam’s story with an eager sell-out audience, who laughed, sang, danced and played games, helping us to make a truly memorable occasion for all involved.

Tracey and I arrived a day before our event and enjoyed David Melling’s Hugless Douglas event and were then treated to comps for Letters of Note: Letters Live starring, amongst others, Chris Evans and Benedict Cumberbatch (who I got chance to say a quick hello to whilst taking a photo for a friend’s daughter!)

The icing on the cake of our first day was the amazing spread that Kate and Adrian from Nosy Crow laid on for not only us, but also author Helen Peters, her family and * trumpet blast * Judy Blume, yes THE Judy Blume, in their beautiful home in Hereford. What an honour it was to be chin-wagging with writing royalty. Everyone was so lovely, witty, and by the end of the evening, full of delicious food and wine – thank you again Kate and Adrian!

Then our big day arrived and it was on with the show (after nearly not making it at all due to a flat battery!). We waited in the Green Room where numerous celebrities, authors and illustrators were tucking into cake, tea and chat – then we were called – it was time to prepare The Starlight Stage – GULP!

This was my first ever time at Hay, so to be in the middle of it all was an invasion on the senses – and the nerves!

Thankfully Tracey – Queen of Bunting – wasted no time in pinning up metres of the stuff – all handmade and suitably Shifty-esque! The rest of our props were placed to perfection and after a quick sound check (Britney mics a go-go!) the 250-strong queue started to pile in…

Then it was on with the show. Tracey and I introduced our characters – just WHERE were Shifty and Sam hiding? A- ha! In the SWAG bag of course – and, aided by the children we settled the robber dogs down for a telling of their story.

As this was Hay, we knew we had to pull out all the stops and so we had prepared some extra special treats for this show. First of which was the premiere appearance of Duchess the pink poodle – who delivered her one line (“How LOVELY!”) from the book with the professionalism and projection of a young Dame Judi (with a pink wig on.)

Next it was time for the second exclusive part of this show ‘The Robber Dog Song! – the first verse of which goes like so:

‘COME ON DOWN, COME ON DOWN,

WE ARE CREEPING OFF TO TOWN,

SHINE YOUR TORCH, GRAB YOUR BAG,

LET’S GO AND GET SOME SWAG!’

We showed the audience all the actions and in no time children from 4 to 74 were shining their torch and grabbing their bag!

I then did a ‘How to draw Slippery Sam’ masterclass – and wow, the children’s drawings were SUPERB!

Yes I AM wearing dog ears while I draw Slippery Sam.

The most fun part of the show was the audience participation extravaganza ‘Heads and Tails’ game – where children and parents were encouraged to raise their hands, come on stage with us and race each other to dress up as dogs as quickly as possible – such fun! I was in charge of Team Shifty with one side of Starlight chanting ‘SHI-FTY, SHI-FTY!’, while Tracey’s Team Sam ‘SAM – WOO! SAM – WOO!’ won the hilarious contest.

Everyone who took part in the game won a bespoke Chefs hat – modelled here by possibly the cheekiest little chap we have ever met!

Then after another sing-a-long-a-Shifty and all the children bouncing their (all handmade by Tracey!) bouncy spiders, our 45 minutes were up and it was on to the book shop for our book signing – and wow what a queue! It was so long I missed two trains back home to Bath, but gosh, was it worth it.

Thank you to all at Hay for organising such a fantastic festival and for helping us to create a fun, interactive show that couldn’t have gone better – PHEW!

The response to our show was overwhelming and we even got a mention on BBC Radio 6 Music and the BBC BLOG.

Keep up-to-date with all upcoming events and news on Shifty McGifty & Slippery Sam 2 at the Nosy Crow website!

And thank you to Tracey for being there – you are one in a million xxx

Thank you, Steven! Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam is available in shops in paperback now – you can take a look inside below and order it online from Waterstones here.

It's June publication day!

Summer is here, and so are lots of new books – our June titles are published today! There some FANTASTIC new books in shops today from Nosy Crow – here they are (with one bonus title for luck).

There are two great new lift-the-flap books from the Can You Say It Too? series, illustrated by Sebastien Braun, out today – Growl! Growl! and Roar! Roar! As all parents know, little children LOVE making animal sounds. So a flap book in which they can spot an animal’s tail, lift the flap to reveal the complete creature, and then make its noise is guaranteed to be a winner!

It’s publication day for Littleland Around the World by Marion Billet. From New York to Australia, and lots of lands in between, this second Littleland picture book features a stunning scene on every spread and is perfect for developing vocabulary and exploring different cultures. With a ‘Can you see?’ feature on every page and a simple, chatty narrative, Littleland Around the World mimics the daily conversations between mother and child and makes the perfect next step up from board books. Here’s a look inside:



Buy the book online.

You can find the first paperback edition of The Princess and the Presents by Caryl Hart and Sarah Warburton in shops today – the follow-up to last year’s phenomenally successful The Princess and the Peas. Princess Ruby really is a horrid child – the most spoilt princess you could ever meet. And when it’s her birthday, there are so many presents the palace literally bulges at the seams. Was there ever a more selfish princess? But when the palace and the gifts finally collapse under the poor king, the tiny tyrant realises that she has overlooked the most precious thing of all. And, luckily for Ruby, it’s never too late to make amends. Here’s a look inside:



Buy the book online.

Zoe’s Rescue Zoo: The Eager Elephant by Amelia Cobb is out today – the fifth fabulous story in this series featuring a go-getting central character, talking animals, compelling story lines and evocative illustrations, this is PERFECT for animal-mad 5+ year olds. In The Eager Elephant, a new baby elephant arrive’s at the zoo – he’s very lively and always getting into tricky situations. Then one day he gets into very hot water indeed and Zoe must use all her prowess with animals to help it. Here’s a look inside:



Buy the book online.

We’re launching a TREMENDOUSLY exciting new series today, with The Palomino Pony Comes Home, by debut author Olivia Tuffin – absolutely PERFECT reading for pony-mad 9+ year olds. All Georgia ever wants to do is spend time with the gorgeous horses at Redgrove Farm stables. The week she spends away from them in Wales is almost unbearable, until she finds a beautiful but mistreated palomino pony on a windswept mountainside. Georgia feels an instant bond with Lily and knows she must help her escape from her cruel owner, whatever the cost… An exciting sequence of soon-to-be-classic pony books, this series is shot through with action, adventure, and a genuine love of horses. Here are the first three chapters:



Buy the book online.

And finally, it’s not a Nosy Crow book, but we’re incredibly proud and excited for former Nosy Crow intern Robin Stevens, whose fantastic debut, Murder Most Unladylike, is out today from Random House – a great mystery for 9+ with a simply BRILLIANT pair of protagonists. You can buy it online from Waterstones here.

Congratulations to all of today’s authors and illustrators!

Bid for fantastic Nosy Crow prizes and support Great Ormond Street Hospital!

This August, Will, our Head of Apps Development: Engineering extraordinaire, will be cycling the 2014 Prudential London-Surrey 100 in aid of Great Ormond Street Hospital – and as part of his fundraising efforts, he’s auctioning some fantastic (and signed!) Nosy Crow stuff! All the proceeds of these auctions will go directly towards supporting the incredible work done by Great Ormond Street – and bring Will closer to his fundraising target!

You can get your hands on a signed hardback copy of the Roald Dahl Funny Prize-shortlisted Weasels by Elys Dolan – here’s the auction page. And here’s a look inside Weasels:

Bid for the book.

Elys has also very kindly donated a signed, one-of-a-kind illustrated Weasels postcard – here’s the auction page. And here’s a look:

Bid for the postcard.

You can also bid for a copy of Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam signed by illustrator Steven Lenton – here’s the auction page. And here’s a look inside the book:

Bid for the book.

You can win a beautiful, limited edition (one from a print run of only 40) A4 giclee print taken from our Jack and the Beanstalk app, signed by illustrator Ed Bryan – here’s the auction page. And here’s a look at the print:

Bid for the print.

And this is also your chance to get a hold of one of our highly collectible sets of Jack and the Beanstalk postcards, also signed by Ed. There are twenty different postcards in this pack – they’re A6-size and come in a fetching, Nosy Crow-red card wallet – here’s the auction page. And here’s a look at the postcards:

Bid for the postcards.

And there are many more lots on offer, including a signed copy of Railroad Hank by Bizzy Bear illustrator Benji Davies – you can take a look at the full list of auctions here. There are just four days left before the lots end, so get bidding! And if you’d like to just donate to Will’s campaign, you can do so at his JustGiving page here – it’s a very worthy cause, and a very long cycle ride!

There's just a few more days left to apply for a designer position at Nosy Crow

There’s just a couple of days left to apply for our Designer position – the closing date is this Friday.

We’re looking for a highly creative, talented, hardworking and bright designer to join our design team. This is a full-time role and the successful applicant will be based in the London office of Nosy Crow in Borough (near London Bridge, Borough and Southwark tube stations, and 15 minutes’ walk from Waterloo).

Candidates will have a minimum of 3 years’ experience in graphic design, mostly if not exclusively in children’s publishing. Proficiency in Indesign, Photoshop and Illustrator programmes, excellent proven book design and typographic skills, and a love of children’s book illustration are essential, along with good written and spoken communication skills, and the ability to work to a deadline.

The successful candidate will manage illustrated book projects (currently picture books and novelty books, but who knows what we might do in future?) from initial layouts all the way through to production, supporting the illustrator or the author/illustrator throughout the creative process. The designer will report to the Head of Design but will work closely with other members of the Nosy Crow team, particularly the editorial staff, to produce child-focused, parent-friendly, high-quality books.

We are a small, close team here at The Crow’s Nest working in a friendly, highly creative and professional environment and we need a team player who is willing to muck in, particularly during busy times.

If you would like to apply for the role, please send a CV and application letter, along with digital samples of your design work, to Stephanie Amster via email (stephanie@nosycrow.com).

"There are five hundred reasons why I began to write for children" Isaac Bashevis Singer

Isaac Bashevis Singer was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1978.

In his acceptance speech, he spoke of why he wrote in Yiddish and why he wrote for children. Here is what he said about writing for children:

“There are five hundred reasons why I began to write for children, but to save time I will mention only ten of them. Number 1) Children read books, not reviews. They don’t give a hoot about the critics. Number 2) Children don’t read to find their identity. Number 3) They don’t read to free themselves of guilt, to quench the thirst for rebellion, or to get rid of alienation. Number 4) They have no use for psychology. Number 5) They detest sociology. Number 6) They don’t try to understand Kafka or Finnegans Wake. Number 7) They still believe in God, the family, angels, devils, witches, goblins, logic, clarity, punctuation, and other such obsolete stuff. Number 8) They love interesting stories, not commentary, guides, or footnotes. Number 9) When a book is boring, they yawn openly, without any shame or fear of authority. Number 10) They don’t expect their beloved writer to redeem humanity. Young as they are, they know that it is not in his power. Only the adults have such childish illusions.”

Isaac Bashevis Singer in New York in 1975

How to Draw... Weasels

Elys Dolan, creator of the Roald Dahl Funny Prize-shortlisted Weasels and Nuts in Space, is the latest illustrator to take part in The Guardian’s How to Draw series, with a typically hilarious guide to drawing your own weasel.

Readers of Elys’ picture books may be familiar with the cast of characters that feature here:

“Health and Safety Weasel” (complete with furious expression and very visible hi vis jacket):

“Drill Weasel” (comes with his own massive drill)”

And, of course, “Weasel Leader” (the monocle makes him look more refined):

You can read Elys’ full set of instructions – and learn how to draw these Weasels and many others – at The Guardian’s site, here.

An absolutely hilarious picture book featuring a dastardly plot to take over the world, questionable coffee beverages, and very big drills, Weasels is packed with cross-over humour to amuse children young and old. The art is stylish yet accessible, and full of details for poring over time and time again – there’s always a new joke to find! Here’s a look inside the book:

Buy Weasels online from Waterstones.

Good luck drawing your own Weasels – we’d love to see the results, so please do tweet them to @NosyCrowBooks!

A month in the Crow's Nest

Today’s blog is by our new Junior Editor, Ruth Symons, on her first month (nearly) at Nosy Crow. Above: the view from one side of the Crow’s Nest.

You won’t find them in the Book of British Birds or singing in your garden, but the Nosy Crows are thriving in the heart of London. It strikes me that some readers may be curious about what really goes on inside Nosy Crow’s offices. So, nearly a month into my new role, I have decided to share some ornithological observations:

Nosy Crow’s offices, affectionately known as the Crow’s Nest, are suitably perched on the top floor of an old industrial building. It’s only two storeys up, but it feels much higher when you’re climbing the external staircase (especially if, like me, you’re slightly scared of heights). The large windows offer a view across the rooftops of Borough, birds dart to and from their nest in the eaves, and I can hear a pair of pigeons cooing somewhere above my desk. So far, so nest-like.

Inside the nest, everyone sits in one large room, surrounded by books and artwork, and there’s a wonderful atmosphere of hustle, bustle and general enthusiasm. Odd snippets of conversation drift across the room and the topic can swiftly change from whether we should offer for a particular book, to a serious discussion about what noise an anteater makes (Huff! huff!), and then to coos of girlish excitement over a nail varnish WITH FLOWERS IN IT!!

The Crows like eating cake and they like making cake. Treats are lovingly baked ahead of meetings, to welcome newcomers like me (thank you Tom!), or just for the sake of it. And, if all else fails, there’s always shop-bought cake. Generally, if there’s a meeting in the calendar you can bet you’ll get your sweet cravings fixed for the day.

As if to balance the cake habit, the team also go for fairly regular lunchtime runs. I thought I went ‘running’ with my last office, but I have now realised I was only ever jogging, and maybe jogging quite slowly at that. The Nosy Crow girls run fast and they run far. But the route past Tate Modern, over Millennium Bridge and along the Thames, like some sort of running tour bus, is enough to distract anyone from the burning sensation in the back of their legs…

Aside from the Crows’ eating and exercise habits, the main feature I have noticed is their genuine friendliness. In a new job, it’s easy to feel like an outsider, unsure and afraid, but I couldn’t have asked for a warmer welcome. I once dressed up as a crow at university (seriously), but now I’m a crow for real (in a sense) and I’m very happy about it too.

The Nosy Crow Reading Group is One Year Old - come to our June event!

Next month will be the one-year anniversary (hurray!) of the Nosy Crow Reading Group, and so it’s perhaps fitting that in June, we’ll be discussing two of the biggest children’s publishing phenomena of recent years: Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney, and Dork Diaries by Rachel Renée Russell.

We thought these would be interesting to read and talk about not just because of their incredible popularity, but because they’re excellent examples of a recent subject which has been in the news a lot recently: gendered reading and the perils and advantages of publishing and packaging books as being “for boy” or “for girls”. Both books (full discolour: I’ve not read either yet) are first-person narratives with very clear target audiences, written in the style of diaries, and so I hope that comparing the two will be an illuminating exercise on what it means for a book to be “for” a particular kind of reader.

And we’d love for you to take part!

The group will be taking place here at the Nosy Crow offices – 10a Lant Street, London, SE1 1QR – on Thursday, June 15 at 6.30pm. If you’d like to come to the physical event at our office in London, send an email to tom at nosycrow dot com and we’ll try to fit in as many people as possible. If we can’t save a place for you this time, we can, if you’d like, keep you on our waiting list for cancellations and add you to our mailing list for future events.

And if you can’t make it here, we’d love for you to join in online, either on Twitter with the #NCGKids hashtag, or in the comments section of our blog for the evening.

We’ll post some discussion points for the book a little closer to the date – we hope you can join us!

Win copies of our June titles!

It’s time for our monthly books giveaway! If you’re a resident of the UK or Ireland, you can win any of our May releases simply by subscribing to our Books Newsletter and sending us an email with the book you’d like to win. Here’s what’s up for grabs…

We’re publishing two great new lift-the-flap books in the Can You Say It Too? series, illustrated by Sebastien Braun – Growl! Growl! and Roar! Roar! As all parents know, little children LOVE making animal sounds. So a flap book in which they can spot an animal’s tail, lift the flap to reveal the complete creature, and then make its noise is guaranteed to be a winner!

You can win Littleland Around the World by Marion Billet – from New York to Australia, and lots of lands in between, this second Littleland picture book features a stunning scene on every spread and is perfect for developing vocabulary and exploring different cultures. With a ‘Can you see?’ feature on every spread and a simple, chatty narrative, Littleland Around the World mimics the daily conversations between mother and child and makes the perfect next step up from board books.

We’ll be publishing the first paperback edition of The Princess and the Presents by Caryl Hart and Sarah Warburton – the follow-up to last year’s phenomenally successful The Princess and the Peas. Princess Ruby really is a horrid child – the most spoilt princess you could ever meet. And when it’s her birthday, there are so many presents the palace literally bulges at the seams. Was there ever a more selfish princess? But when the palace and the gifts finally collapse under the poor king, the tiny tyrant realises that she has overlooked the most precious thing of all. And, luckily for Ruby, it’s never too late to make amends. Here’s a look inside:

Zoe’s Rescue Zoo: The Eager Elephant by Amelia Cobb is up for grabs – the fifth fabulous story in this series featuring a go-getting central character, talking animals, compelling story lines and evocative illustrations, this is PERFECT for animal-mad 5+ year olds. In The Eager Elephant, a new baby elephant arrive’s at the zoo – he’s very lively and always getting into tricky situations. Then one day he gets into very hot water indeed and Zoe must use all her prowess with animals to help it. Here’s a look inside:

And finally, you can win The Palomino Pony Comes Home – the first novel in a new series by debut author Olivia Tuffin that’s absolutely PERFECT for pony-mad 9+ year olds. All Georgia ever wants to do is spend time with the gorgeous horses at Redgrove Farm stables. The week she spends away from them in Wales is almost unbearable, until she finds a beautiful but mistreated palomino pony on a windswept mountainside. Georgia feels an instant bond with Lily and knows she must help her escape from her cruel owner, whatever the cost… An exciting sequence of soon-to-be-classic pony books, this series is shot through with action, adventure, and a genuine love of horses. Here are the first three chapters:

To win one of these books, all you have to do is subscribe to our books newsletter (if you’ve already subscribed you’re still eligible for this competition) and send an email to tom@nosycrow.com with “Newsletter competition” in the subject heading and the title of the book you’d like to win in the body of your email. So have a good think about which book you’d like to win (we can only accept one entry per person), and good luck – we’ll pick the winners at random next week.

Women working in publishing; Victoria Barnsley; and this year's Kim Scott Walwyn prize

Anne Perry (left) and Victoria Barnsley at the prize-giving for the Kim Scott Walwyn award

A couple of weeks ago – sorry, I meant to write this ages ago, but times are busy – the Kim Scott Walwyn Prize for 2014 was awarded. The prize celebrates the professional achievements and promise of women who have worked in publishing or bookselling in the UK for up to seven years. It went to Anne Perry. An American, like last year’s winner, she demonstrated remarkable range – she’s a writer, a founder of a literary award and a genre adult fiction editor. There were five women on the shortlist, one of whom, Melissa Cox, was, as Children’s Buyer for Waterstones, flying the flag for children’s books.

Anne spoke of this recognition of her achievements in the context of her mother’s academic and professional struggles. She said that, when her mother was in high school in 1965, she’d won a scholarship, but wasn’t told about it until two years later – long after it was too late for her to act on it. She challenged her school principal, who said that she hadn’t been told because she was just a woman and it wouldn’t have done her any good anyway: “This poor man, long dead, was terribly wrong not just about my mother, but about all of you here”.

I thought that it was interesting, and rather touching, that she spoke publicly, and emotionally, about her mother, who was at the event. She wasn’t the only shortlisted candidate whose parents were present. And I found myself wondering if young men in the same position would have been as willing to include their mums in celebrations of their professional achievements.

But the keynote was given by Victoria Barnsley, whose career in publishing has so far spanned being an entrepreneur and a corporate boss. In 1984, she set up Fourth Estate, which was acquired by HarperCollins in 2000. She became CEO of HarperCollins, initially in the UK, and, later, with a wider remit. She left HarperCollins in July of last year. During her time as CEO, Harper Collins was twice Bookseller Industry Award winner of the Publisher of the Year prize. She was the president of Publishers Association and chair of World Book Day. In 2009, she was awarded OBE for services to publishing. She was described by the woman who introduced her as “a beacon of what women can achieve”.

Here’s her own summary of what she said:

No one disputes that the publishing industry seriously over-indexes on gender balance but has this progress slowed or even stalled? We’re now seeing the sort of ratios in relation to gender balance at the top of publishing companies that we would expect in other sectors, but not ours – is this a fluke or the beginning of a trend? Is the shift in the balance of power related to the shift to digital?

If Martha Lane Fox’s statistics about the staggering dearth of women in tech companies is correct, (Victoria quoted Martha Lane Fox at the London Book Fair Futurebook conference as having said that, if trends continue as they are in the tech industry, by 2040 only 1% of the workforce will be women), it’s bound to have an impact .We know publishers are rightly supplementing their talent base by recruiting from tech companies. We know that tech companies are almost entirely male. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to work it out. Personally, I believe that the increased recruitment from tech companies will have a detrimental effect on gender balance in publishing, and we haven’t seen the full impact yet.

I believe two other factors are negatively effecting gender balance, firstly what I call the corporate effect and, secondly, women’s own realisation that they can’t have it all.

The number of women on the top boards of companies at large is in inverse proportion to the size of the company. Look at the boards of the Footsie top 250. When the Davies review was launched a few years ago it discovered that only 7.8% of their boards were female and that more than half the boards didn’t have a single female director. There is plenty of evidence that gender balance in businesses cascades from the top. If the top board is largely the preserve of men, the likelihood is that the subsidiary boards will also be predominantly male. This is due to the cloning effect whereby CEOs and senior managers have a tendency to recruit in their own image.

With the increased concentration of publishing ownership in corporations I believe women will become more conscious of a glass ceiling than they did when publishing was in more fragmented ownership.

Women themselves are perhaps the biggest impediment to gender balance at the top.This could be because of their failure to “lean in” through lack of confidence or, more likely, simply their realisation that “having it all” in reality means “doing it all”. Women still pick up more than their fair share of child care and domestic duties. We are now seeing a second generation of women who are more reluctant to blindly pursue top jobs because of lifestyle choices. Yes, they want careers; yes, they want senior positions – but not necessarily the senior position and all that comes with it, particularly in a corporate environment.

For these three reasons, the digital effect, the corporate effect and women’s own lifestyle choices, I believe gender balance at the top of publishing is threatened. This is a great pity as we have never needed top female talent more. I’m not as bullish as some incumbents about the future of the publishing industry. I think that having a single dominant retailer (in physical as well as digital) and now a single dominant publisher is an unhealthy and dangerous state of affairs. In these difficult times, the industry has never been in greater need of talent, of leadership, and it would be a tragedy if it wasn’t sourcing that talent from the widest possible pool.

But rather than lamenting a lack of women at the top we need to be doing something about it. First, we need to be changing our businesses to accommodate women more. Businesses need to encourage leaders and corporate overseers to be more adventurous in recruitment, to step outside their gender comfort zones. All the evidence proves that companies with gender-diverse boards perform better. In fact having one single female director makes a company 20% less likely to go bankrupt and that percentage increases when there are more female directors. Second, businesses need to change their working practices. They need to respond to a world of total and instant connectivity by instituting more flexible working hours and abolishing an outdated meeting culture. Third, companies need to be less ageist. Publishing is missing out on a huge pool of post 50 women who would like to return to full time employment.

Women have always had a special place in publishing and they have had a profound effect upon our industry – women like Gail Rebuck, Helen Fraser, Ursula MacKenzie to name just a few. I see an equally talented group of women bubbling up to the surface today. For the sake of our industry we need to make room for them. We need to ensure that a good few of them are in CEO positions in major companies by the end of the decade. We need them.

And if they’re not there? Well, Martha Lane Fox’s advice to women in publishing was, “if you can’t beat them don’t join them”. In other words go and do your own thing. It’s tempting advice.

She also mentioned, that in January 2014, the Bookseller had devoted a section to publishing leaders’ views of the future of publishing. 13 people were interviewed, and non of them was a woman. She also pointed out that only one of this year’s Publisher of the Year shortlisted publishing houses at the Publisher of the Year Awards was run by a woman… though she also acknowledged that the publisher won. (It’s maybe worth pointing out that the company that won is one of a group of companies that is run in the UK by a man…)

She spoke with admirable honesty, I thought, of her personal experience as a “classic victim of the generation care squeeze”. She took on the HarperCollins CEO role when she had a seven year-old daughter and an 81 year old mother, who was suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and spoke of juggling her professional responsibilities with 3am calls from her mother’s carer and helping her daughter with homework. She said, “My mum was sent into a home. My daughter went to boarding school. I am not sure that was best for any of us.”

She spoke of trying to persuade two of the women on her team to go for more senior roles. Younger than her, and both mothers, they were perhaps more aware that “having it all means doing it all”. Both women decided against pursuing promotion.

Four-and-a-half years ago, my climb up the corporate ladder abruptly stopped. It seemed to me unlikely that I would find another job, so, as Martha Lane Fox suggested, as I couldn’t join them, I didn’t join them, and I set up Nosy Crow.

I have touched on my sense that I wasn’t, in the end, a great fit in a senior corporate role in both this blog post about being fired, and the radio programme it’s written about. I remember, as I thought about what I was going to say in that radio programme, that I had heard, in the couple of weeks leading up to it, two women say that they had been fired from senior corporate roles because they were “too outspoken”, and I sometimes wonder if male bosses expect men and women to behave differently: the same behaviour can be seen as assertive and strong in men, but aggressive and bossy in women. Maybe some women can “lean in” a bit too much for the comfort of some male bosses.

When we set up Nosy Crow, we tried to avoid imposing corporate ways of working on staff. I wrote in this blog post about parents working at Nosy Crow, and in this one about working at home.

At Nosy Crow, our ratio of women to men is roughly 2:1. I’d be the first to acknowledge that our digital innovation was one of the things that drove the appointment of men, and the four most “techie” members of the team, in terms of their experience and job roles, are all men.

Today, knowing I was writing this, my older daughter said about balancing work and family, “I don’t intend to work for a corporation, so I would hope not to have the issues that people who aren’t self-employed have. The deal with being self-employed is that you can choose how much time you spend with your children, and how much time you spend on your work.”

And my younger daughter (the one I interviewed in the blog post I linked to above), said, “my perspective may change, but I don’t think that, when I start working I would be confident enough to set up on my own. After I’d gained more experience, though, I’d want my own company.”

Maybe the mantra for my daughters’ generation won’t just be “if you can’t join them, don’t join them”, but “if you can’t join them, beat them”. I rather hope so.