WEEKEND COLUMNISTS I have never won an award. This may well be because there are no awards in existence for which I am eligible. I am yet, for example, to hear about an award for “the woman with the highest body mass index to make a first solo flight in 2008” or some such.
But I am keen on awards. They serve to not only honour the winner, but encourager les autres. One of the toughest awards to win is Journalist of the Year, because it is decided by a jury of journalists. This is why it was very pleasing that my colleague Gillian Tett was named “Journalist of the Year 2009” in March. The judges’ citation declared that she had been “consistently in front of the curve as the world’s economy went into meltdown”.
It was a timely reminder to the outside world that the Financial Times is not staffed solely with white, male, Anglo-Saxon alumni of Balliol College, Oxford, but has some female talent as well. And it was encouraging for the Financial Times and the people who work there. Tett doesn’t let the grass grow under her feet. A working mother, she has not only produced award-winning commentary on the crisis but has also written a book about the events that led to the world’s credit markets seizing up. Fool’s Gold – a second extract of which starts on page 20 – is a worthy successor to her earlier book, Saving the Sun, and written in the style of one of my favourite books ever, Bryan Burrough’s Barbarians at the Gate. By the time you get to the end of Fool’s Gold you will think that you really know Blythe Masters (one of its protagonists).
Contrary to appearances, the Financial Times is full of over-achieving women. One, for example, is US managing editor, and another heads the FT’s commercial operations in Asia. And now, in conjunction with RBS Coutts, the Financial Times is establishing the Women in Asia Awards, to recognise the contributions of women to business and society. The event will be held in Hong Kong in October. I was in Asia to help publicise these awards and while I sadly won’t qualify, I want to encourage any readers in the region to nominate entrants or even apply themselves.
One of the reasons that career women should be honoured is that they are often trying to manage a household and raise a family at the same time. Tett said recently that her young daughters had watched her book’s progress with interest. The older one had suggested that instead of writing about bankers, her mother would do better to write about princesses, who were much prettier.
I know some very attractive female bankers and am sure that there are some very unattractive princesses around, although, as I am not a big reader of Hello! magazine, I couldn’t tell you which. While I was in Hong Kong, I also did a book signing. It does get a bit repetitive after a while and I barely looked up as a succession of women thrust books under my nose and told me their names. The 55th or so woman who appeared told me her name was Autumn. Who names their child after a season, for goodness sake? Scribbling away, I tried to be charming. “What a lovely name,” I said, not looking up. “It is the name of the newest person to join our royal family. She’s Canadian.” “I’m Canadian,” the woman said, as I carried on writing. “Gosh,” I said, “it must be a more common name in Canada than I realised.” She then asked “Do you think I look like her?” I turned and handed the book to a very pretty western girl who barely looked old enough to be getting married. “No,” I said. “You are younger and prettier.”
Needless to say, it was indeed her – Peter Phillips’ wife. I blame the FT – it is the only paper I read, and it rarely carries photos of royalty. No royal-spotting awards for me, then.
