Veils and vitriol

Lucy Mangan sounds like a woman after my own heart. Like me, she never really fancied the idea of getting married but found herself saying yes instead of no when asked (in both cases, it would have been churlish to refuse after all the efforts the would-be groom had gone to).
Like me she knows how to use all of life’s rich tapestry (shamelessly) as journalistic fodder. And how to plug her books by selling features based on them.
Like me – I hope – she can raise a smile or two in the process.
And that’s why I think it will be worth getting hold of a copy of The Reluctant Bride, despite all the sour comments on the Mail and Guardian websites.
See for yourself here: www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1271558/How-reluctant-bride-fell-love-marriage.html

Some mistake surely?

Organising a wedding – especially when you only have ten weeks – requires so much attention to detail that it’s difficult to keep on top of everything else you should be doing at the same time. While I was configuring seating plans and ordering flowers I was (with my work hat on) looking for a new assistant. I picked the wrong one.

She started the week after the wedding and I think we both suspected from the start it was a mistake. I felt pretty sure when I asked her to find me the Times splash and then discovered she'd been keying those exact words into a Google search. No doubt she felt pretty sure when she discovered she had a grumpy old woman as her boss.

Anyway, she’s gone and I’ve started the process all over again.

Under less pressure now, I have time to despair at the applications. Or laugh. Here is a selection (from today’s 2:1 graduates):

*I knew from an early age that I wanted to get into journalism but instead opted to do French.

*The job will be the perfect platform to give you the boost you need to start a career. Therefore many people and me will be applying for this position.

*PERSONEL STATEMENT
An ambitious graduate journalist …

*I have been writing since childhood and have developed my own distinctive style without losing the ability to be fluid and can write using a style guide and to a brief on time whilst under pressure.

After a while I lost track of the number of misplaced apostrophes, misspelt driving licenses and other basic errors.

I learned to hate the phrase ‘field of journalism’ – why limit yourself to a field? Why not a meadow or a prairie?

I identified ‘third eye syndrome’, a condition where the first three paragraphs of a covering letter (possibly more) all start with the word I.

I never want to have to read another statement that talks about people skills ever, ever again. (See, it’s contagious).

Interviews start next week.