Taking the helm of the Queen’s grocer, Fortnum & Mason, has provided the perfect platform for Beverley Aspinall’s managerial talents.
Second is not an option
She’s a young mother to five children. But when she gets on the racing track everything but the car and her desire to win falls away. Two years ago Formula One could well have been a children’s meal for all Helen Ray knew. But now she has Le Mans in her sights.
Ed Hall is a theatre director with a passion. He aims to boldly go into unknown territory. And nowhere is this more evident than in his work with his all-male company Propeller, who perform Shakespeare as the author intended.
When you’ve been a founding member of MAC, a $400 million international cosmetics company and you sell up what do you do? That’s the question that faced Julie Toskan. For her the answer was to carry on her philanthropic interests, establish a programme in Canada working with youth, and bring it to London this autumn.
The UK has the highest incidence of ovarian cancer in Europe. Seven thousand women died from it in 2003. So why don’t we talk about it? March is ovarian cancer awareness month and Allyson Kaye, the chair of Ovarian Cancer Action, wants to raise the profile of this serious condition.
Angel of Nagpur
Moving from west to east, Leah Pattison has dedicated her life to helping India’s lepers.
Did you know women are opening new businesses at twice the rate of men in the US? Or that half of private companies over there are now owned by women? Thought not. In her new book published last month, UK-based Margaret Heffernan uncovers the ‘business story of our generation’ and asks why the UK isn’t following suit.
Dazzling Diaz
Worldwide recognition for top UK jewellery designer as he accessorises the likes of Cameron Diaz, Sharon Stone and Christina Aguilera, who won¹t wear anything but!
The wife of a banker
One of the original rags to riches stories, this is an account of Harriot Coutts (and later Duchess of St Albans) - an illegitimate child who ascended to near royalty in the conservative 18th century…
The spice of her life
It is hard to believe that Pinky Lilani, founder of Spice Magic and development consultant to Europe’s biggest food companies, could not cook when she came to England in 1977. It certainly came as a shock to her husband.
Women? They’re terrific!
It’s hard to miss Joan Bakewell these days. What with advertisements for her new book ‘The View from Here: Life at 70’ appearing in nearly every newspaper and magazine across the UK, and the media full of stories either featuring her or written by her, the thinking man’s crumpet is back.
An Island adventure
If somebody had suggested to Victoria Hislop five years ago that she would one day top the bestsellers’ list, she would have laughed at them. At the time she was a successful freelance journalist writing on travel, education and celebrity issues and had, by her own admission, ‘no intention of writing a novel’. But then, on a family holiday to Crete, she visited the island of Spinalonga, just off its northern coast, and it changed her life.
The woman behind THE Book Club
Amanda Ross is a publishing sensation and she has never written a book. You may not have heard of Amanda Ross, but the chances are that she influenced the book you chose to take on holiday this year. And it is likely that any Christmas book you select as a gift will carry her endorsement.
Wear It Pink
Sitting on the floor of her cramped office, cutting up ribbon she’d bought at John Lewis - this is how the chief executive of Breast Cancer Campaign (Campaign), Pamela Goldberg, remembers the first October she used the pink ribbon to fundraise and promote awareness of breast cancer.
A passion for fashion
Fresh from her show at New York fashion week, Alice Temperley continues to take the industry by storm. From relatively humble beginnings in 2000, when she started her company Temperley London with her (now) husband Lars von Bennigsen, a pair of scissors and a phone, the 31-year-old from Somerset now employs 67 people and has shops in London, New York and Los Angeles.
From rock star wife, to organic life
When Jo Wood’s husband dismissed her idea to transform her hobby creating organic bath oils into a small business, the wife of the Rolling Stone thought ‘I’ll show him!’
Made for TV – SHED productions
When viewing figures for the third episode of prison drama Bad Girls slumped, the ‘room just swam’ for Eileen Gallagher, chief executive of Shed Productions, so she did the only sensible thing – she went to the pub and made it swim a bit more.
Gill Switalski, founder of Legalpulse
Gill Switalski is currently a director of legal services for F&C Asset Management plc. Gill started out life in fraud and murder but moved to the murkier world of corporate law! Gill was Sony's first female general manager and first female director of corporate services for Camelot Plc.
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