Diary: On the QT ..

The Weapon7 creative director - who writes under the name of Seth Garner - has already authored two psychological thrillers set in the advertising and communications industries and is setting to work on his third. Garner does most of his writing on the train commute between London and his Cambridgeshire home. Steven Hess, the Weapon7 chief executive, has supplied him with an iPhone so they can talk shop from time to time. Being a creative - and much to Hess' delight - Garner hasn't yet worked out how to turn it off ...

You wouldn't want to be in the News of the World's shoes at the moment. Who should be observing the Department for Culture, Media and Sport hearing into its phone-tapping scandal? None other than Baroness Peta Buscombe, the former Advertising Association chief executive, now the chairman of the Press Complaints Commission. Buscombe has a reputation for approaching new jobs with a reforming zeal. She was spotted at the back of the room scribbling furiously and tut-tutting as Grubb Street's latest sordid tale unfolded. Be afraid, News International, be very afraid ...

Bruce Crouch, the Audacity founder, merits an odd entry in Why England Lose: And Other Curious Phenomena Explained, which is being published next month. Crouch's footballer son, Peter, is named as one of just five of the 34 England players selected for the past three World Cups whose fathers have had more than "basic formal education" ...

How reassuring that the Engine Group continues to tick over nicely. Well, its ladies anyway. Its team has walked off with the Nabs netball plate, having beaten the Financial Times, Starcom MediaVest, Rapier, McCann Erickson, Tequila and i-level along the way. What's more, Engine's Natalie Parish was named player of the tournament.

This article was first published on Campaign