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Chapters (64)
  1. Cover
  2. About the Author
  3. Dedication
  4. Chapter One
  5. Chapter Two
  6. Chapter Three
  7. Chapter Four
  8. Chapter Five
  9. Chapter Six
  10. Chapter Seven
  11. Chapter Eight
  12. Chapter Nine
  13. Chapter Ten
  14. Chapter Eleven
  15. Chapter Twelve
  16. Chapter Thirteen
  17. Chapter Fourteen
  18. Chapter Fifteen
  19. Chapter Sixteen
  20. Chapter Seventeen
  21. Chapter Eighteen
  22. Chapter Nineteen
  23. Chapter Twenty
  24. Chapter Twenty-One
  25. Chapter Twenty-Two
  26. Chapter Twenty-Three
  27. Chapter Twenty-Four
  28. Chapter Twenty-Five
  29. Chapter Twenty-Six
  30. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  31. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  32. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  33. Chapter Thirty
  34. Chapter Thirty-One
  35. Chapter Thirty-Two
  36. Chapter Thirty-Three
  37. Chapter Thirty-Four
  38. Chapter Thirty-Five
  39. Chapter Thirty-Six
  40. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  41. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  42. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  43. Chapter Forty
  44. Chapter Forty-One
  45. Chapter Forty-Two
  46. Chapter Forty-Three
  47. Chapter Forty-Four
  48. Chapter Forty-Five
  49. Chapter Forty-Six
  50. Chapter Forty-Seven
  51. Chapter Forty-Eight
  52. Chapter Forty-Nine
  53. Chapter Fifty
  54. Chapter Fifty-One
  55. Chapter Fifty-Two
  56. Chapter Fifty-Three
  57. Chapter Fifty-Four
  58. Chapter Fifty-Five
  59. Chapter Fifty-Six
  60. Chapter Fifty-Seven
  61. Chapter Fifty-Eight
  62. Chapter Fifty-Nine
  63. Epilogue
  64. Acknowledgements

‘Harriet, I came to talk to you about Imogen’s appearance on the talk show…but what is everyone doing? Why aren’t you all at your desks? It’s not lunch break, is it?’

The Know team is frozen now, a Hogarthian tableau. Kim is balancing on one leg, just released from Louise’s arms. Akila has her hands on her hips, Tabitha’s palms are open, to gesture at the monitor. Harri realises she’s holding her breath. She feels, and she is startled by the obscurity and specificity of the reference, the way she imagines she might if she were a guerrilla theatre director in the 1600s, and her rehearsal was getting shut down by Oliver Cromwell himself.

‘Mackenzie, hello. Good to see you.’ Neutralise. Neutralise. As Harri ascended the ranks at Panache, she read a lot of books about hostage negotiation. She’s calmed the VP of William Morris, she’s talked anxious starlets out of the bathrooms of their private jets. She can be a very good horse whisperer. ‘We’re celebrating Imogen, she was fantastic on Good Morning Britain. Very good for team morale.’

The trouble is that Harri knows how to bolster a fragile ego, how to wrangle and manipulate the flighty and frightened. But Mackenzie is immovable, an iron lady. Her anger is solid. ‘Imogen has not promoted The Know in the way that was discussed. She lost control of the conversation. She barely mentioned the work of the website, or other trade titles in the Hudson portfolio. And I worry that the focus on sexual matters brings the overall brand into disrepute.’

Well, which is it? thinks Harri, angrily. You can’t have too much publicity and not enough publicity. And poor Imogen had enough to worry about without bringing up matters of scaffolding. ‘Mackenzie, before this happened, we discussed the fact that the British media will be taking a different approach. This sort of slot always runs as a debate. The sort of coverage you’re looking for doesn’t exist over here. If you want more control over it, you’ll need to raise our ad spend.’ From nothing. Despite the fact that she has run the numbers, made a watertight case for a proper ad campaign, and more or less been reduced to begging at meetings. Harri has thought about buying a can of paint with her own money and spraying the words ‘Read The Know!’ on bus stops.