Debretts’ timely boost

Press, 30 May 1981, Page 12

Debretts’ timely boost

By

KEN COATES

in London

The Royal engagement has I brought a boost to the forI tunes of the most respected i of publishing firms. Debretts. It has brought out a book on Prince Charles and the Royal wedding which is likely to outsell all the many other offerings. By coincidence, Air lan i McCoquodale, son of Barbara Cartland, Lady Diana’s stepgrandmother. arrived to join Debretts and guide the compilation of the book at a crucial time. It is reported that the author, Hugo Vickers, was starting to write the crucial part about Lady Diana and the Spencer family three months before the engagement was announced. Since the engagement, the company has sold 180,000 copies at $22 a time. The publishing world is reported to be rife with rumours that Mr McCorquo-

dale had inside information oh the Prince s courtship of Lady Diana, and arranged the $494,000 backing .by the London Trust, an investment group, to back Debretts, formerly financially shaky. ' But Mr McCorquodale has vigorously denied such suggestions. The cost to industry of a day off for the Royal wedding has emerged as an issue in pay talks. The celebration of the Royal nuptials at St Paul’s Cathedral on July 29 was cited bj’ the Chemical Industries’ Association as one . more reason — on top of the recession — it could not afford a basic increase of . more than 7.3 per cent for its workers. The association estimates that the day’s jollifications will cost the chemical industry $41.9 million, plus lost .production. The Confederation of Brit-

ish Industry confirms that J the cost to industry of shut- ; ting down in mid-week is . heavy. I It apparently did its ut- : most, without losing its dig- i nity, to persuade Lady Diana I to choose a Friday, rather than a Wednesday. But the Trade Union Congress stands firm. “It is well established custom and practice that public holidays granted in this way should be honoured,” a spokesman said.