Caroline michel went to the party on October 16th for the announcement of this year's winner of the Man-Booker prize, Britain's poshest literary award, but despite her glamorous looks she was hardly in a festive mood. Ever since September, when she took over as boss of pfd, the country's oldest literary and talent agency, she has been at the centre of a public and acrimonious fight between pfd's owners and its agents. So far 21 of the company's staff of 70 have handed in their resignations. More are toying with the idea of jumping from what some have come to see as a sinking ship. Ms Michel's arrival as boss of the company, founded in 1924 as A.D. Peters and merged in 1999 with Fraser & Dunlop to become pfd, is not the reason for the mass defection. Staff are unhappy with css Stellar, a sports-marketing firm that bought the agency six years ago. css knows little and cares less for the business, they say: it just squeezes pfd for short-term profit.
展开▼
