Friday 23 June 2006

Incredible. Fantastically rich woman PhD-holder buys publishing gem and goes into therapy.

From The Guardian: When she bought the publishing house Granta, Sigrid Rausing - heiress to the Tetra Pak fortune - become a major player in British cultural life.
Inheriting is a funny thing. It confers immense privilege, but also delegitimises: Rausing apparently finds being referred to as the "Tetra Pak heiress", with its implication that any intellectual interest is dilettantism, infuriating. She has said that when she was younger, an aspiring academic living in a dingy London flat, she hid the fact of her wealth. Eventually, she sought therapy because: "I wanted to be who I was and didn't want to hide anything any more. I know people who are emotionally crippled by money they inherited."

She now owns Granta, one of the most prestigious publishing houses in the English-speaking world. From Tetra Pak to terrifically well-connected, it seems like a dream. What wouldn't one do?

But emotionally crippled? Crikey. Let me try it out. Give ME some. We'll see how I fare. Probably pretty well. I'm willing to try.

I can see that a philanthropist might think they could do an awful lot of good with an imprint possessing the cachet of Granta. After all, it's published some of the leading names in literature (before they became famous). The only problem I have with the magazine is that their Web site uses Times font. I hate Times in online contexts. As you may have noticed, the font used on this blog is Verdana — by far the best font for online publication. I generally rate Sites that use Verdana very highly. Much better than Ariel, another popular online font.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

If I have one dream second only to writing and publishing The Great Australian Novel, it's winning Lotto and starting my own publishing house where I could favour older writers.

TimT said...

I dislike Verdana. I know it's good for web, but it's inelegant - to me at least.

I wish I knew more about what fonts were good for web ...

Unknown said...

I have switched to serif fonts and think they are easier to read.

Here's my blog with serif fonts and a blog with the same theme but using sans serif.

Unknown said...

And after leaving the above comment, I visited " Will Type For Food" and notice you are using a similar theme with serif fonts.

Matthew da Silva said...

I know your blog very well, Ron (it's in my blogroll). But I will never, ever change. Ever. That's a promise ;)

Unknown said...

I think I might've been a bit confusing in my last comment, Dean.

When I wrote, "notice you are using", I was pointing to Timt's blog "Will Type for Food."

How's are the Amsterdam Mariners going? Makes me thirsty just thinking about them.

Matthew da Silva said...

I'm on number seven right now, Ron. It's as good as the first (well, maybe not quite as tasty, but the effect is starting to really kick in).

Anonymous said...

I am a big Helvetica fan myself!
Ron, I want to read that novel!

bibliobibuli said...

ye gods. haven't even thought what font i use ...

Granta is such an important literary launchpad, and i wish Rausing all the best with it