First off, I'll start by saying that I haven't finished reading Jane Raphaely's biography, unedited. Not because it's boring or anything - far from it - but because, in order to have my breakfast on a flight between home and temp-home, I had to pause at the part where she was talking about the stage of life when teenagers tell their parents that they didn't ask to be born. And then, you guessed it, I forgot the book on the plane! But even if I never get it back, unedited - which is what the book is called - is a good enough read to buy another copy. If you're unfamiliar with her, Mrs Raphaely is one of the most revered people in the magazine industry. She was responsible for putting Fairlady onto the map and more popularly, giving South African women their own version of Cosmopolitan Magazine and ultimately building the empire that is Associated Magazines. Even if you have no interest in these women's titles or think Cosmo and 'em are for daft women, you'd be surprised to find out the ideas behind these magazines. I look forward to reading the rest of her story as the emphasis seems to be on just how she did it all. In case you were wondering, her response to teenagers saying they wish they weren't born is simply that parents were making love, not babies, when the children came to be. Awesome, right?
