The Week UK 21.03.2020

8 NEWS People

THEWEEK 21 March 2020

Sandbergonleadership

AstheauthorofLeanIn,a

bestsellingguideforwomen

intheworkplace,Sheryl

Sandbergisthe“guruof

femaleempowerment”,says

EleanorMillsinTheSunday

Times.Sowhatdoesthe

FacebookCOOthinkexplains

women’sunder-representation

inseniorbusinessroles?Itis

downtolikeability,shesays.

“Thedatashowsconclusively

thatasmengetmoresuccessful

theyarebetterlikedbywomen

andmen–butaswomenget

moresuccessfultheyareless

likedbyboth.”Theyare

victims,sheadds,ofan

“insidiousbias”.Girlsdowell

atschoolanduniversity;butin

theworkplace,successdepends

onleadershipandassertiveness

–andassertivewomenare

deemed“difficult”.“Iseeitall

thetime.Tobeperceivedasa

womanyelling,allyou haveto

do isnotsay‘please’. Fora

mantobedescribedasyelling,

he’dhavetoscreamandthrow

things.” Changingperceptions,

shesays,shouldstartat school.

Whenteacherswritereports,

“they shouldn’t saythelittle

girlisbossy,butthatshehas

executiveleadership skills,

she’llbe agreatCEO”.

RichardColes’sgrief

As aparishpriest,Richard

Coles hasoftenhadto deal

withdeath.Yet theformerpop

starstillwasn’tprepared for

thegriefhehas experienced

sincethedeathin December

of his partner,theRevDavid

Coles, aged 42. Just fil lingthe

daycanbehard,hetold Chris

Godfreyin TheGuardian.“I

gotintheothernightandfed

thedogsandlitafireand

cookedsomesupper.Igot

intomypyjamasandhada

nightcap.Ithenlookedatmy

watchanditwastenpastsix.”

Facinguptothefuturealoneis

eventougher.“It’sabitblank.

Ithink:‘Whatthef***amI

goingtodo?’Ofcourse,it’s

nottheendofmylife,butit

feelslikeit’soversometimes.”

Hisfaithdoeshelp,though.

“Christianitydoesn’tgetyou

outofdeath.ButIama

ChristianandIdon’tthink

thisisallthereis.Everything

thatwasgoodaboutmeand

David,that’snotfinished.”

Thevirushunter

WhenPeterPiotwasaboy,

growingupin“boring”

Flanders,hedevouredTintin

booksanddreamedof

becominganexplorer.“But

whatcouldIdiscover whenthe

wholeworldhadalreadybeen

discovered?” Atmedical

school, hefound hisanswer:

infectiousdiseases.Inthe

1970s,hewasoneof the team

thatidentifiedtheEbolavirus

duringadeadlyoutbreakin

DR Congo, says DavidPilling

in theFT; inthe1980s,he was

aleadingfigure inthefight

against Aids.His50-year

careerhastaken himon

adventuresallover theworld,

butPiot–thedirectorofthe

LondonSchoolofHygieneand

Tropical Medicine–says the

key tosuccessin virologyis

meticulousness.“As wesayin

Dutch,you [have]tobe even

moreof anant-f***er than

withparasitesor bacteria–

reallyobsessedwithdetail.”

In person, Miriam Margolyes is very much as people expect her to

be, said Emine Saner in The Guardian: “gloriously naughty”, and

bracingly direct. For instance, says the actress, “WhenIget into a

tube train andIwant to sit down and there’s no seats,Isay: ‘Please,

mayIsit down?’ And if nobody will get up,Isit on them.”How

many people has she sat on? “I think actually just one. They were

surprised, and then really quite angry.” She beams. Margolyes has

always liked to shock. “There isakindofdelight in people’s: ‘Did

she say that?’” And now, at 78, her directness, and her force-of-

nature personality, have helped her developanew sideline to her

acting: presenting TV documentaries. In the most recent,Miriam’s

Big Fat Adventure,she explores the obesity crisis and the body

positivity movement. “I’ve been fat all my life andIwanted to work

out why,” she explains. “CouldIchange? And how do other people

cope with it?” In her teens, her weight made her miserable. People

didn’t ask her out, and she felt “very crushed”. But at university,

“I realised thatIhad aspark of something that was more valuable

than beauty.Ihad energy, and energy is always attractive.” She

still hates being overweight, but she does now like her face. “I think

that when people look at me, they smile, and they don’t smile

mockingly, they smile affectionately” she says. “AndIlove tha t.”

Viewpoint:

Mono-news

“Not thatlongago, but itfeelslike alost

age, theBig Worry used to be thatthere

was nothing totalk aboutoverthe water

cooler anymore. Because we watched

our ownflavourof streamedtelevision

and were targeted withpersonalised ads

on Facebook,weinthe 21st centuryhad

no commoncause.Even thelittlelistof

eventscomprising thenews waskindof

irrelevant. We werenever going to have

anationalconversationagain.Wewish.

In fact ,publicdebatehas not been

fracturing butsnowballing.Now we have

agiant rolling snowballof‘mono-news’, a

single topicthatobliteratesall othersfor

yearsat atime. FirstTrump, thenBrexit,

nowthepandemic: the water cooler is so

busy it needs constantdisinfection.”

HelenRumbelow inTheTimes

Farewell

Charles Berry,

medical research chief

at Nasa, died1March,

aged 96.

Hugh Cecil,military

historian,died 11

March, aged 78.

FrancesCuka,actress

who premieredA

Taste of Honey,died

16 February, aged 83.

Roy Hudd,comedian,

actor and writer, died

15 March, aged 83.

Tom Watkins,pop

impresarioofthe Pet

ShopBoys, Bros and

E17, died 24 February,

aged71.

Book:The Norton AnthologyofPoetry

Luxury:penciland paper *Choic eifallowed only one record

Castaway of the week

This week’s edition of Radio 4’sDesert Island Discsfeatured

the actor Daniel Radcliffe

1*Bring Me Sunshineby ArthurKent andSylviaDee, performed

by Morecambe&Wise

2 We Will AllGoTogether When We Go,written and performed

by TomLehrer

3 Where Is My Mind?by Black Francis, performed by thePixies

4 He’s Simple, He’sDumb,He’s The Pilotby JasonLytle,

performed by Grandaddy

5 Killer Partiesby Craig Finn and Tad Kubler, performed by

The Hold Steady

6 Into My Armsby Nic kCave, performedbyNick Cave &The

Bad Seeds

7 Emily,written and performed by Joanna Newsom

8 Attaboyby Stuart Duncan,EdgarMeyerand ChrisThile,

performed by Yo-Yo Ma

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