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Without Whom?
 


 
   

PPhunnybone for PP January 2013

WITHOUT WHOM? 

Dedications and acknowledgements can be almost a book in themselves. 

Anon: “To the company’s lawyers, without whose advice this book would have been far longer.” 

PG Wodehouse in The Heart of a Goof: “To my daughter Leonora, without whose never-failing sympathy and encouragement this book would have been finished in half the time.” 

In her historical novel Bring Up The Bodies, Hilary Mantel includes her husband “who has to share a house with so many invisible people…” 

Albert Malvino: “This book is dedicated to my brilliant and beautiful wife without whom I would be nothing.  She always comforts and consoles, never complains or interferes, asks nothing, and endures all.  She also writes my dedications.”  

Julie Barnett, Professor in Healthcare Research at Brunel University, has a posting about her PhD: “Lastly, I acknowledge the contribution that Crystal Palace FC and Diet Coke have made to my enjoyment of the last three years.” 

Naseem Javed dedicated Naming for Power (an exploration of branding and brand names) to “my mother, Amtul, my wife, Lucie, my son, Tashi.  Also, to the twenty-six letters of the alphabet, especially the letters A, B, and C, which taught me a great deal.”

And families are glimpsed in the dedications in The Psychology of People in Organisations that my friend Angela Mansi and Dr Melanie Ashleigh have recently written.  Melanie’s is to James, Charleigh, Zachary and Theodore.  Angi’s is to husband Naren, Henry – who I know to be a much-loved cat – and “my mum who taught me to love reading and my dad who taught me to find out things for myself”. 

Angi’s story is an inspiration for anyone liking to find things out - and considering a serious career redirection. It shows a different meaning of dedication.  She started work as a very junior office assistant.  But her people skills made her an ideal flight attendant, and then a member of the Crew Counselling Unit at British Airways.  She studied assiduously for her OU degree in psychology, and later an MSc thesis on The Dark Side of Management.  Today she’s a university lecturer and business psychology consultant.  And author!  

Which demanded even more dedication.  Melanie and Angi managed to collaborate through the dozen chapters, each with its opening case study, topic overview, a dozen sections, psychology put in context, a summary, discussion questions, interactive group activity, further reading, on-line resources, and references.  It’s a tour de force of commitment that Bradley Wiggins would admire.  Yet the book’s very readable – something you can’t say about all publications in social and other sciences! 

Hugh’s view? Phew!  But though I’m in awe of all long-distance authors, I have an affinity with those who can do the stuff in a few words. 

Some students wrote to George Bernard Shaw that as he was being paid a shilling a word for writing, they enclosed a postal order for a shilling and please would he send them one.  His postcard said: “Thanks.”

And Victor Hugo wanted to know how Les Miserables was selling.  He sent a telegram with “?” to his publisher. 

Who replied: “!”

 


 

 

      

by Melanie Ashleigh and Angela Mansi is published by Pearson Books
ISBN978-0-273-75576-0

Melanie is a senior lecturer at the University of Southampton and director of the MSc in Management.

Angela is a senior lecturer in occupational therapy at Westminster Business School and associate lecturer at Birkbeck and University College London.

Both are available for business consulting.

 

 
 
   

For more information at any time, contact
The Conductor of Just1, Hugh Gibbons

E-mail: hughgibbons@just1.org.uk
Tel: 01344 451847

Write: 75 Qualitas
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Bracknell
Berks RG12 7QG
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