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Horace Bent At FBF 2018


Colophon


Publisher & chief executive Nigel Roby 61


Bent's Notes Horace Bent @horacebent


When success is not enough G


uten Morgen, meine Freunde. I come to this Frankfurt with an old Gore Vidal quote ringing in my ears: “Success is not enough; others must fail.” Yes, your old pal Horace is generally content with his lot in life. Aſter all, I trouser a six -figure salary (and I mean a significant six-figure salary; Maddy “Mo’ Money” Milburn might as well be my agent) for a few book fair columns and a funny book title prize per annum. Yet it sometimes seems some of my comrades from yesteryear at The Bookseller Mansions are… passing me by. Oh, it wasn’t so


bad when the old trade organ’s office boy Jason Cowley leſt for various lesser titles (including the Times, the Observer and Granta; he’s now the big cheese at the New Statesman). I’m sanguine about some of those posts. First off, you can never begrudge anyone a move to Granta as by all accounts Sigrid Rausing is an uter joy to work with. And the New Statesman may be a heavyweight periodical for the intelligentsia, but does anyone find the time to read it? The bulk of its circulation figures surely come from it being handed out free at Labour Part Conference fringe events to people wearing “Jezza 4-Eva” T-shirts. And on the cusp of FBF, my old mucker Joel Rickett has been raised to the purple as head honcho at Ebury by his boss and stle guru Tom Weldon. (Both absolutely rock the statement eyewear and pomade-sculpted hair, don’t they?) It seems like only yesterday that I would scream, “Young Ricket, get me my damn coffee!” when I arrived at 9 a.m. on the dot. And, “Young Ricket, get me my damn brandy!” when it was time for my mid- morning livener (9.20 a.m.). But now here he is, heading a major publishing house. I’m so


LEARNING THE ROPES AT THE BOOKSELLER...


My father said, quite matter of fact, that the problem was my first name and that I should switch to my middle name, Paul


(9.20 a.m.)


happy for him. So. God-dashed. Happy. For. Him. Almost as delighted as Jake Lingwood was when he heard the news.


One man who perhaps is not troubled by others’ success is Charli Redmayne. Sure, he has an Oscar-winning brother (you may not know this, he never brings it up) but the HarperCollins boss radiates quiet confidence. That, my friends, is public-school education for you. But did you catch Redmanye at yesterday’s The Markets Conference, where he praised Andrew “Te Jackal” Wylie’s “excellent” keynote on the same stage last year? Has the phrase “excellent” ever had so much nuance, or so many potential meanings? I personally think he used it in the sense of “rubbish”, “tosh”, or perhaps “if you slag off our global publishing programme again, I’ll put my size 12s up 360 degrees...”


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In tomorrow’s magazine Horace reflects on the goings-on at the Messe on day one having filed his faultless copy shortly before retiring to bed, sober as a judge, at 6 p.m.6 p


42 10th October 2018


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It seems like only yesterday that I would scream daily, ‘Young Rickett, get me my damn brandy’ when it was time for my mid-morning livener


RECENT APPOINTMENT AS EBURY M.D.


...AND UPON HIS


A FRESH-FACED JOEL RICKETT


Editor Philip Jones 64 Deputy editor Benedicte Page 67 Associate editors Molly Flatt, Caroline Sanderson Senior reporter Katherine Cowdrey 65


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