Teamwork really is the dreamwork

It’s rarely a good news week, but this week, the news has seemed particularly grim.

Amidst so much darkness, it would have been some light relief to write about puppies and unicorns, but where would that have got us? So instead, here’s an upbeat tale about my deadlines, every single one of which has been ‘live’ or ‘on the day’ this week, which basically means you get commissioned in the morning (“morning” meaning any time after conference, which can often mean midday) and have until 4/5pm to file. Which is fine – I love nothing more than a challenging deadline – apart from one little, obvious, tiny, little baby hiccup, to quote Liam Neeson in Love, Actually (an upbeat film – if only there was a summer version). The hiccup? Quotes. If the feature needs quotes, you’re screwed, because however quickly you write, you can’t be in control of how quickly the quotes come in, since they obviously rely on the timeliness of others.

So this is a ‘thank you’ to the brilliant PRs who supplied every quote I ever asked for this week, in super-quick time. You know who you are.

When I started my career, admittedly on a magazine, it wasn’t uncommon for quotes to take over a week to obtain. I’m glad that we’re all now working at the same (breakneck) speed.

Teamwork really is the dreamwork.