14: Preliminary Reconnaissance

Posted in Diary posts on July 23rd, 2010 by Peter Baker

23 July 2010

In the early noughties, I worked for a consultancy called Towers Perrin (now Towers Watson). At one point during my time there Accenture (not really a competitor, but a comparable organisation) started advertising on the London Underground. Read more »

13: The Three-Point Plan

Posted in Diary posts on June 29th, 2010 by Peter Baker

29 June 2010

The organisational structures which underlie the publishing industry are fickle, profit-seeking institutions. Persuading one of them to accept a manuscript is extremely difficult. Three quarters of books don’t make back their production costs, let alone turn a meaningful profit. Last year in the USA (the world’s most important market for English-language books), over 150,000 were published.

How many have you heard of? 0.1% of them? Read more »

12: Contributing Artists

Posted in Diary posts on June 7th, 2010 by Peter Baker

7 June 2010

The process of turning two years of public correspondence (and four battered notebooks worth of scribblings, numbers, quotes, tables and poetry) into a product to encourage a more realistic comprehension of this ‘human civilisation’ gig wasn’t just a one-man show.
Read more »

11: A Series of Jolts to the System

Posted in Diary posts on May 27th, 2010 by Peter Baker

27 May 2010

I’m going off-theme for this update. Last Wednesday, I had an experience which shook me. I have to share.

I’ve been going on dates with a woman called Charlotte Eaton. Last week, Charlotte took me to Udderbelly, the venue on the South Bank run by Channel 4. The gig, ‘No Offence… But’, involved a panel of comedians exploring the limits of acceptability in comedy. Read more »

10: Meanwhile, Back in the City

Posted in Diary posts on May 10th, 2010 by Peter Baker

10 May 2010

In the day job, nothing stays the same for long. The two Claires left me. ‘The Hutch’ to do something less stressful and ‘Lady Claire’ to create a new human being from scratch.
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