WHAT DO MARGARET THATCHER AND ANGELINA JOLIE HAVE IN COMMON?

No they didn’t both audition for Tomb Raider. They are both, along with Bill Clinton, Nelson Mandela, Greg Dyke, Tony Blair and Jay Gatsby, subjects for Gavin Esler in his new book, Lessons From the Top, How Leaders Succeed Through the Power of Stories. I’m looking forward to meeting Gavin at Soho House next Friday (31st August) and plotting the lines that connect these characters through his career as a broadcast journalist for the BBC. Given his own position in the public eye and the role of the BBC in our culture, I wonder what stories he wants to tell about himself and his employer, should be fascinating.

Maggie

Jolie

GOING FOR GOLD OR PACKING YOUR BAGS?

July is either a mouth-watering prospect of fun and games or, if you live in London, an impending, imperfect storm of traffic, tourists and delays on the tube.

Sadie Jones

This month, Books for Breakfast is embracing both sides of the Olympic coin, as it were; looking outwards to the holiday sun with Costa award-winning, best-selling novelist Sadie Jones and inwards, towards the track-star in all of us, with “performance specialist” Rasmus Ankersen.

Sadie will be joined by the erudite, witty woman of stage and page, Viv Groskop, at High Road House W4 on Friday 20th July. They’ll be talking about Sadie’s second novel The Uninvited Guests and discussing the best books to pack in your travel bag or take away on your Kindle/Kobo/iPad this summer.

Meanwhile, back in Soho, I’ll be meeting Danish dynamo Rasmus Ankersen, who has travelled the planet to find out why certain countries produce winners in sports such as tennis, running, golf and football.

Rasmus Ankersen

If you have any interest in making the most of talent, you’ll enjoy his book; The Gold Mine Effect, Crack the Secrets of High Performance, which despite having a cheesy title, contains very edible nuggets of experience and wisdom from the world’s best coached and athletes.

You can apply for places at both events by emailing reception@booksforbreakfast.com.

Everyone attending gets a nice breakfast and a signed copy of the book.

VELOCITY GOES TO NUMBER 1

Massive congratulations to Ajaz, Stefan and everyone at Ebury Publishing for getting their book to the top spot in the non-fiction paperback charts. The achievement comes just a couple of weeks after we hosted a breakfast with the authors at Soho House. If you haven’t already got a copy you can buy one here.

BETA TODAY, BETTER TOMORROW

Enjoyed the company of the charmingly irrepressible Ajaz Ahmed and the irrepressibly charming Stefan Olander this morning (pictured above with their editor, Vermilion’s Susanna Abbott and me on the far right). Between them they have over thirty years on the front lines of the digital revolution. I say front lines plural, because their success is underpinned by a restless dedication to constant change and disruption, surprisingly so for two men at the helm of established global brands.
After over-interpreting the meaning of their book’s cover design (I suggested that the embossed hole represented a silver bullet bursting through the heart of the recession, OK, right) we covered work culture, personal values and the future of publishing, in which we all agreed the printed book has a big part to play.

KNOWING ME KNOWING STEVE JOBS…

Two more amazing authors to look forward to at the end of May… First of all the incredibly accessible and entertaining neuroscientist David Eagleman is joining us for breakfast at the Hospital Club on Friday May 25th to discuss the mind-blowing ideas in his book Incognito, the Secret Lives of the Brain. Also on the table will be talk of his novel SUM, Tales From the Afterlives which has been turned into an opera at the Royal Opera House.

Then on Thursday May 31st at Soho House, co-hosting with our good friends, creative digital specialist Cogs Agency  , we have breakfast with Ken Segall. His much anticipated book Insanely Simple, The Obsession That Drives Apple’s Success is packed with insights from his time spent by the side of Steve Jobs, during which period he led the campaign to put the “i” before Mac and so begin a cultural and technical revolution leading to global domination and the most valuable consumer brand in the world.

To apply for places at breakfast with David Eagleman or Ken Segall, please email reception@booksforbreakfast.com Places are limited so get your request in early.

EVOLUTION GUARANTEED ON MAY 4th AT SOHO HOUSE

Winston Churchill famously said “if you are going through hell, keep moving,” which is exactly the sort of motivational aphorism that you might find between the pages of this game-changing book on management philosophy by the founder of legendary innovation agency AKQA and Nike’s VP of Digital Sport.
Except that Churchill’s sentiment is not nearly positive or bright enough to shine among the optimism and energy of VELOCITY – THE SEVEN NEW LAWS FOR A WORLD GONE DIGITAL. Hell, to Ajaz Ahmed and Stefan Olander is doing nothing, standing still, mediocrity. Whereas heaven is activity, movement, Wonder.
With an introduction by Richard Branson and written as a conversation between client and supplier of creative ideas, VELOCITY draws inspiration from a twelve year working relationship at the cutting edge of digital media. Jargon-free and full of passion for people and business, they have a clear warning for leaders resting on their laurels and organisations who settle for maintenance over growth. Nike’s Stefan Olander:
“‘Many businesses are ‘institutionally analogue’ : stuck in structures and logistical straitjackets that had an obvious function and a rational purpose fifty, twenty, even fifteen years ago. But for the past decade that way of doing things has been evaporating.”
The distillation of the media from analogue to digital has led to businesses blindly “counting clicks” rather than making people “feel something” with inspiration and purpose “larger than yourself” – a call to arms if ever there was one for the individual to connect with the two billion people who are currently online around the world spending $8 trillion a year, the sort of army and resources that Churchill could only dream of in his darkest hour.
To meet Ajaz and Stefan over breakfast on May 4th or for the chance to host a special Velocity Books for Breakfast event at your company, please contact reception@booksforbreakfast.com.

HISTORIC BOOKS FOR BREAKFAST AT FOYLES

Excited and honoured to be hosting our first Books for Breakfast at Foyles Cafe with historian Jerry White, whose trilogy of books is now complete with London in the Eighteenth Century A Great & Monstrous Thing.

“An invigorating and thoughtful tour through London’s most extraordinary and bracing of centuries” The Sunday Times

“You’d not want a time machine to transport you back. As Professor Jerry White says in this magisterial book, ‘the effrontery of thieves knew no bounds’.” Daily Mail

“A comprehensive body of historical work that will take another hundred years to better” Time Out (Book of the Week with 5 Stars)

The breakfast takes place on Thursday 12th April between 0830 and 1030. Everyone who attends gets to hear Jerry, eat breakfast and take home a signed copy of the book (RRP £25) for an amazing introductory offer of £15. Take that Amazon!

Go to the FOYLES WEBSITE to reserve your place.

ENTER THE DRAGON…

Full House

Books for Breakfast with digital sooth-sayer Tom Chatfield is now fully booked on February 1oth. Obviously plenty of people in the BFB network want to get inside his head and see the future through his eyes. We’ll be posting the best bits on this blog after the event, meanwhile I recommend a recap on all things digital with Tom’s book 50 Digital Ideas You Really Need to Know (Quercus £9.99)

Just in…we’ve booked TV Dragon James Caan for breakfast on 19th March . Apart from dispensing business wisdom to  entrepreneurial members and guests, he’ll be talking about his new book Start Your Business in 7 Days (Penguin Portfolio £12.99). Members of Soho House will be able to book through the House Seven website and a limited number of places will be available to followers of @books4breakfast on twitter.

Yes We Caan

THE WIZARD OF BOZ

“Who the dickens ‘Boz’ could be
Puzzled many a learned elf,
Till time unveiled the mystery,
And ‘Boz’ appeared as Dickens’ self.”

Bentley’s Miscellany, March 1837

A special Books for Breakfast to celebrate the 200th birthday of “Boz” at the Arts Club he founded in 1863. We share the occasion with a man who knows Charles Dickens as well as a best friend might: Simon Callow has performed as, and appeared in, Dickens on stage, big screen and TV and has now written a book (Dickens and the Great Theatre of the World), that offers a fresh look at one of the  most famous, prolific and influential authors that has ever lived.

Kilgarriff & Callow

Almost as many words have been written about Dickens as he wrote himself, but no biographer has, to my knowledge, captured  the frenzied mix of public readings, travel, novels, journalism and theatre that made Dickens so remarkable. Not forgetting the numerous women he entertained throughout his life and the complex, controlling energy that compelled him to produce such an immense body of work.

If you think you know Dickens, think again. If you’ve never met him, this is a great introduction to the man and the life behind the books.

DIGITAL IDEAS, HAPPINESS AND DICKENS

2012 is here so we’d best get cracking with some excellent authors on the Books for Breakfast circuit:

get happy

On January 25th at 930 am, we kick off at High Road House  in W4 with Susie Pearl and her Instructions for Happiness and Success; A manual of ideas, guidance and inspiration to make the most of who you are (and who you want to be) in 2012.

Sticking with new ideas, we turn to Tom Chatfield at 9am on February 10th at Soho House. The Cogs Agency are co-hosting this event with me and every guest will get a copy of the latest Wired Magazine. What better way to ease out of detox and step into the digital year?

get Dickens

get digital

Finally, it being the Dickens bicentenary year, we are preparing a very special breakfast with a very special talent who has immersed himself in the Dickens canon, both as a writer and a performer, so watch this space.