Here’s a snapshot of what we’ve been up to individually and collectively in the first month of Collective Wisdom.
The PEN Pinter Prize awards ceremony at the British Library took place on 10 October, handled by Truda with support from Titilope and Karen (who first worked with the winner Arundhati Roy on her Booker Prize winning God of Small Things). It was a powerful evening, with an encomium from Naomi Klein published in New Statesman and the announcement of the Writer of Courage, Alaa Abd el-Fattar, covered nationally and internationally, including in The Times and The Guardian.
We’re delighted to announce that Truda has been appointed an Ambassador for the Blake Cottage Trust, which is working to save the cottage in Felpham and create a centre celebrating William and Catherine Blake. Fellow Ambassador John Higgs wrote this for the Big Issue.
Meanwhile Celia has been working on the 10gram Challenge for the Royal Society of Sculptors. 40 artists, including Grayson Perry, Rana Begum, Anthony Gormley and Laura Ford have made mini masterpieces from a 10gram piece of wax. These have been cast in bronze to form a selling exhibition taking place 23-24 October at the Thomas Dane Gallery and thereafter online. All profits will go to help create new sculpture studio and workshop spaces for the Society. Read more here.
Titilope has been supporting Black Cultural Archives on the opening of their latest exhibition. Race Today – Black History is British History explores the profound legacy of the Race Today journals, focusing on the influential period from 1973 to 1988 and showing how the journal tackled transnational issues, serving as a critical platform for conversations about British and global conflicts, while continually pushing boundaries by uncovering the dynamics behind these movements.
Books specialist Claire has been up and down the country and in quite a few TV studios with her authors this month. From Cheltenham Literature Festival for events with Monty Don and Derry Moore, Spanish Gardens, BBC Books and Caitlin Moran’s What About Men? to Henley filming an interview for The ONE Show with Mary Berry and her new book, Mary’s Foolproof Dinners, plus a visit to ITV’s Lorraine to launch Kate Humble’s lovely new book, Home Made, it’s been a busy month.
Shona’s role as Publicity Director at Harvill Secker/Vintage has her working with a range of acclaimed authors including Roddy Doyle, for The Women Next Door, Karl Ove Knausgaard for the latest in the acclaimed Morning Star trilogy, The Third Realm and Pedro Almodóvar for The Last Dream.
It’s been a joy working with Roddy: sell out events and another bestseller for the Booker winner.
Karl Ove has been doing selected bookshop events, with great turnout despite two of those events being on consecutive evenings in London – a testament to his ever-growing fan base. A wonderful interview in the Mail on Sunday’s YOU Magazine, is another example of his wide appeal. This was in conjunction with stunning national press reviews and several broadcast interviews.
Almodóvar’s The Last Dream is as close to a memoir as we will get. This collection of short stories was published last month and we arranged for one broadsheet interview with the Saturday Guardian which took place in Madrid. It was a logistical feat, given his extremely busy filming schedule, just ahead of The Room Next Door being released. Dua Lipa is a huge fan and posted about the book on social media – she may also have more to say about it – watch this space…
Social media expert Jen Tree has been focusing her talents on growing the Jerwood Foundation’s audience on Instagram. Having developed a new content strategy and style, there’s now a campaign underway to hit the 20k follower mark!
Amanda launched Betty Boo’s new album ‘Rip Up The Rulebook’. Despite a 30 year gap between albums, British dance pop rap artist Betty Boo – best known for her 1990 smash hit single ‘Doin’ The Do’ – garnered huge amounts of press coverage for her return in 2022. Her new album saw Betty securing the cover of Retro Pop magazine and terrific reviews for her sold out show at Islington Assembly Hall. Freeman PR focused on online press securing a number of key podcasts and strong reviews across a number of top tier sites including Retro Pop and MusicOMH.
Elspeth, Truda and Titilope worked with Chiswick House & Gardens to launch the third year of Black Chiswick through History, a project uncovering the stories of people, places and experiences connecting the house to Black history, people of colour and the colonial past, both locally and globally. They secured press and influencer coverage, including a reel by the brilliant Kemi Lawson of @CottageNoir which gained over 13k views.
