26 and counting

I'm one of the founders of 26, an organisation set up in 2003 to up the profile of writing in business and beyond. We're called 26 because that's the number of letters in the alphabet - the DNA of language.

It's all been a bit of a rollercoaster ride. In the early days we hoped to attract 26 members. We now have over 300. We put on evening events, organise collaborative projects with like-minded partners, run a message board, and have had several books published (see below). But the best thing about 26 is there's a real sense of community - we've brought together not only writers, but publishers, clients, designers and even the odd accountant.

I've been keeping busy editing the monthly newsletter and developing the Elmwood-designed web site, www.26.org.uk.

Just keeping you postered

As part of the 2007 London Design Festival, ‘26 Posters’ set a challenge to twenty-six pairs of writers and designers. To create a six-word poster that somehow comments on or reflects its immediate location. That’s it. Simple, but devilishly tricky. Billboard posters and Street Talks (sponsored telephone boxes) appeared all over London, as well as Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh.

I was honoured to team up with my old friend, the prodigiously talented Jonathan Barnbrook, fresh from his one-man show at the Design Museum. We created a poster for Birmingham’s Gun Quarter, which in the 18th century claimed to be ‘the world’s foremost producer of guns’. Through a tension between words and image, ‘This smoking gun. Made in Birmingham’ intends to pose intriguing contradictions and questions.

You can see the rest of the posters on the 26 web site.

Shakey all about

The Bard & Company is the latest multi-authored book project from 26. Conveniently enough, it turns out that there were 26 players in Shakespeare’s company, so that magic number of writers were assigned a play and a player, and asked to explore ways in which the Bard can bring lessons to modern business life.

I helped edit the book along with John Simmons and Rob Williams, and also contributed the finale, a chapter which features all 26 of the players. Being responsible for other’s work was a real eye-opener. Some writers were more receptive to advice than others, so my role was half quality controller and half egg-shell walker.

In comparison, writing my own chapter was a breeze. It’s a darkly comic tale of vaulting ambition and skulduggery on the Welcombe Hills outside Stratford, and was inspired by a real-life RSC publicity stunt which used a flotilla of hot-air balloons to pump ambient music and Shakespeare readings over the rooftops of Stratford.

‘The Bard & Company – Shakespeare’s Role in Modern Business Life’ is published by Cyan and out now. You can buy it from Amazon for a mere £8.57.

In bed with the Bard

In Common Ground, another 26 book project, 30 writers were asked to explore the way a certain neck of the woods has coloured the work of a literary great. Which prompted chapters on Dickens' Kent, the Rev W Awdry's Wiltshire, Thomas Hardy's Dorset, Paul Abbott's Burnley, and many more.

I'd decided to sit this one out as I had already contributed to the last two 26 books. Besides, I have led such a peripatetic life that I don't feel a strong connection with any particular part of the UK. But, at the eleventh hour, the writer who'd taken on the biggest name of all - William Shakespeare - dropped out. As a denizen of Warwickshire, the editors asked me to step into the breach. Only I had just four weeks to write my chapter.

I came up with a piece of pure fantasy in which Shakespeare is shipwrecked the 21st century and lured back to his home town on the promise of a suggestive email message. This becomes the cue for a tour of the more tacky side of modern-day Stratford, and a tale of mistaken identity, love at first sight and bed-swapping. You can read the full, unabridged chapter - as well as 29 others - in 'Common Ground - Around Britain in 30 Writers'.

Circle Line

This was 26's major project for 2005, a two-pronged affair which took London's Circle Line as its starting point. Writers were each randomly assigned a station - I was pretty miffed to end up with Euston Square which, on the surface, had nothing whatsoever to recommend it.

We were also partnered with students from the London College of Communication. Here I was fortunate enough to land the highly talented Tommaso de Sanctis and Avital Benezra. After a couple of false starts, we hit upon the idea of an illustrative representation of Richard Trevithick's Catch Me Who Can locomotive, going round a circular track in the middle of modern-day Euston Square, with all the 21st century high-rise, glass-fronted architecture around it. (Trevithick had originally set the track up in the same location in 1808 as a stunt to attract funding.) The result - wonderfully rendered by Tommaso - was surreal, thought provoking and tied-in neatly with the Circle Line.

The second part of the project was to write a chapter inspired by the surrounding area. The Bloomsbury Group quickly came to mind, and it struck me that what really interests people about them is their notorious sexual shenanigans. So I concocted a story about a country ingenue called Algy, who arrives in London and mistakenly gets caught up in an upmarket orgy. Kind of PG Wodehouse meets Marquis de Sade. You can read the full uncensored chapter in From Here to Here: Stories Inspired by London's Circle Line.

26 Letters

This was a collaboration between 26 and the International Society of Typgraphic Designers, which resulted in a series of 26 posters and a book. Writers and designers were randomly paired and allocated a letter of the alphabet. I was lucky with both. Derek Birdsall and i. After a couple of long lunches, we hatched our plan - a first-person short story told by the egomaniacal 'Omar Sharif of the alphabet', set as a shadow cast by the letterform. As a finishing touch it was beautifully printed on a reflective, mirror-like surface, so that viewers could see their faces as they read the text. Our poster became part of an ambitious British Library exhibition which ran during the latter part of 2004. You can read more about i and the other posters in the accompanying book, 26 Letters: Illuminating the Alphabet.

Awards judging

Judge not, that that ye be not judged, so the Bible tells us. But on the other hand, it would be churlish to refuse such an honour. So far, I've sat on juries for D&AD (twice, for Interactive and Writing for Design); Design Week (the Print section, on two occasions); and the BAFTAs (for On-screen Design). As you'd expect, I'm always firm but fair.