The outside world may still view PR in terms of girls who lunch but
a new brand of PR women is emerging at Fishburn Hedges which obviously
likes its women to have a slightly, erm, masculine quality.
My gender-aware sources at the agency tell me that the agency has
recently recruited Emma Squire who, alongside Fenella Gentleman, and Liz
Male, completes a trio of female consultants with testosterone-inspired
surnames.
The poor women were even dragged out to nearby Trafalgar Square last
week, where they were made to fool about in front of an unsuspecting
photographer.
And when you thought things couldn’t get any stranger, I gather that
Squire’s boyfriend goes by the name of Jim Mann.
Fishburn Hedges director Ron Finlay jokes: ’All we need now is a real
Mann!’
Gentleman, who joined Fishburn Hedges last August, tells me she is used
to being the butt of jokes. Her surname has resulted in endless
mirth.
’When I started out after Oxford I worked in a literary agency and it
was my job to screen material. I had to send a gentle rejection letter
to a Mr Lady, signed Miss Gentleman,’ she wittily recounts.
