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Kate Colquhoun |
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1981 After d’Overbroeck’s, I went to York University, to study English. My first job was in Rights at Faber and Faber. I had a brief spell as a head-hunter and then went to Australia to work for Random House Publishers in Sydney. I stayed for about 8 years. I travelled back to the UK via India, driving a Landrover from India to England – the Iran, Emirates, Saudi, Jordan etc route rather than right up through Iran and into Turkey. Back in England I became the Marketing Director of Trade Books for Oxford University Press. I met my future husband, and then moved to London where I worked briefly for Bloomsbury before taking on the job of Publisher at Prospect Magazine. They sacked me a couple of weeks before our first son was born. This turned out to be completely liberating since soon after that I tried to find a book about the life of Joseph Paxton, and found none. He became the subject of my first book. The Biography – A Thing in Disguise – was published by 4th Estate a week or so before our second son was born. It was shortlisted for the Duff Coper and longlisted for the Samuel Johnson awards and did well with reviewers. It made Book of the Week on Radio 4. I now write regularly for many different publications such as the Books section of the Saturday Telegraph, the Weekend section of the FT , RHS magazine and The Garden. I am now well into researching for my next book, a history of British cooking over the last 2,000 years, which will be published by Bloomsbury in 2007. I spend most of my time in the British Library, pouring over medieval culinary rolls (as in vellum, not pastry). I live in London, and have two little boys, and a husband who is an amazing Literary Agent, (not mine!). When I was at d’Overbroeck’s I made a lot of fantastic friends, and this set me up to get the most out of university. |
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