My Lucky Break

My Australian agents were handing out free drinks at the London Book Fair on Tuesday evening so I went along to give them moral support. This consisted mainly of quaffing wine and grazing on canapés, something as an Australian I have a natural ability to do.

Sometime between my second glass of Chardonnay and a very tasty mushroom vol-au-vent, I caught up with Shona Martyn. Shona is now head of Harper Collins in Australia, but in a previous life she was in charge at Transworld and ‘discovered’ No Shitting in the Toilet.

Chatting to her reminded me of just how lucky I was getting my big break. NSITT had landed on the Transworld doorstep just as Shona had taken over. She’d been given a mandate to ‘shake things up’ and luckily for me that included publishing a travel book by a guy no-one had ever heard of just because it had the word ‘shitting’ in the title. She also published a book called Hot Sex by a similarly unknown person called Tracy Cox.

Here’s the lucky bit: Shona’s predecessor at Transworld had been an uptight, conservative matron. If I’d sent NSITT to them only a few weeks earlier I would have received another rejection letter to add to my pile. I’d still be working in advertising. And I’d be spending most nights of the week bitterly holding up a bar and telling anyone who would listen about the book I’d written, still sitting in my bottom drawer. Thanks to Shona that only happens on weekends now.