Tomorrowsbooks | Fiona Macpherson

Week of wrestling with the flat plan. It flashes in front of my eyes as I lie in bed fretting at 4 in the morning, like the departures board at Paddington station. Life is a flat plan. Struggling to make the features work. Placate Ann Barr, who as usual is agitating about the contents of Barometer, her pet trend-spotting column. Strengthen the dire fashion stories that keep coming in. Lunch with Liz Kershaw, the publisher of Good Housekeeping, at the Caprice. Sally O’Sullivan, who was once in my place, and is now editor of Good Housekeeping, is sitting with Miles Chapman across the room. A near miss. ‘Merciless Miles’, as Bob Johnson [ex-production editor of H&Q] used to call him, was the odious chief sub at Queen, whom I fired in the 1970s. He’s just written an offensive piece about me in the Evening Standard. Perhaps I should have strolled across the restaurant and poured a jug of vinaigrette down his shirt collar. Why didn’t I?
Eyes rested. On a plateau thank God. What a relief not to be bashing my retinas against that fucking screen every day, getting blinder and blinder. Jamie [Bill, publisher of Harpers] talking about the autumn collections which are rising like Hiroshima on the horizon. Certain amount of anxiety about my clothes which I’m pushing to the back of my mind.



		Fiona Macpherson
		Monday 18th to Thursday 21st July 1994

Home Piers Paul Read Ysenda Maxtone Graham Sophie Frank Michael Meylac Rosanna Kelly & Gail Hallyburton Fiona Macpherson Ronald Harwood Charlotte Fairbairn Adrian Bailey		Week of wrestling with the flat plan. It flashes in front of my eyes as I lie in bed fretting at 4 in the morning, like the departures board at Paddington station. Life is a flat plan. Struggling to make the features work. Placate Ann Barr, who as usual is agitating about the contents of Barometer, her pet trend-spotting column. Strengthen the dire fashion stories that keep coming in. Lunch with Liz Kershaw, the publisher of Good Housekeeping, at the Caprice. Sally O’Sullivan, who was once in my place, and is now editor of Good Housekeeping, is sitting with Miles Chapman across the room. A near miss. ‘Merciless Miles’, as Bob Johnson [ex-production editor of H&Q] used to call him, was the odious chief sub at Queen, whom I fired in the 1970s. He’s just written an offensive piece about me in the Evening Standard. Perhaps I should have strolled across the restaurant and poured a jug of vinaigrette down his shirt collar. Why didn’t I? Eyes rested. On a plateau thank God. What a relief not to be bashing my retinas against that fucking screen every day, getting blinder and blinder. Jamie [Bill, publisher of Harpers] talking about the autumn collections which are rising like Hiroshima on the horizon. Certain amount of anxiety about my clothes which I’m pushing to the back of my mind.

Monday 18th to Thursday 21st July 1994