Kellaway, Lucy 1959-

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Kellaway, Lucy 1959-

PERSONAL:

Born 1959, in London, England; married David Goodhart (a magazine publisher and editor); children: four. Education: Graduate of Oxford University.

ADDRESSES:

E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Financial Times, London, England, journalist, 1985—, including positions as energy correspondent, Brussels correspondent, Lex writer, interviewer, and management columnist.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Wincott Young Financial Journalist Award; two Industrial Society Work Awards; Columnist of the Year award, British Press, 2006.

WRITINGS:

Sense and Nonsense in the Office, Financial Times/Prentice Hall (London, England), 2000.

Who Moved My Blackberry? (novel), Viking (London, England), 2005, published as Who Moved My Blackberry? The Martin Lukes Chronicles, Hyperion (New York, NY), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

Lucy Kellaway worked in many capacities for the Financial Times before becoming the business management columnist there. Her weekly column entertains readers with its lighthearted skewering of management practices and trends as it reflects the world of the office, in part through the eyes of her fictional creation, marketing executive Martin Lukes. Kellaway created her debut novel, Who Moved My Blackberry? with Martin as the protagonist and credited coauthor. A Kirkus Reviews contributor described the book as an "enjoyable satire of corporate life's stupidities and empty language, as well as those who buy into them."

With the help of his life coach, Pandora, the mostly disagreeable Martin works his way through twelve months of corporate satire, playing office politics, stroking his own ego, and cheating on his wife with assorted secretaries, including the young "Kinky Pinky." One of Martin's skills is creating marketing terms, such as "creovation," a combination of creative and innovation. The entire story is told through e-mails, and it is through his Blackberry that the reader discovers the inner workings of Martin. When his teenage son finds the device, he proceeds to exact revenge on his neglectful father. Observer reviewer Heather Stewart wrote: "Kellaway captures the euphemistic nonsense of business-speak perfectly," concluding that the novel "is a more effective, and certainly more enjoyable indictment of corporate power than a shelf-load of anti-capitalist, anti-globalisation protest books."