The Middletons and British Airways (thinkdrafts)

submitted ago by letsdothis3

Hmm.. Middleton family online business in trouble? https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6833005/Party-supplies-company-run-Kate-Middletons-mother-Carole-laid-staff-fears-future.html

Carole and Michael Middleton founded Party Pieces in 1987 and have 40 staff. But they have reportedly laid off three members of staff over anxieties ahead 

Uh huh..let's take a look..

The company's web designer, PR agent and 'search engine optimisation' employee were among the recent firings. ..The firm, whose slogan is 'magical parties for over 30 years', says on its website it has 40 staff 'as well as a dedicated customer service team'.

There's that reference to Magic again...

The company began when the family returned to the UK from Jordan, where Mr Middleton had been managing an international air station for British Airways.

https://www.travelandleisure.com/travel-news/how-kate-middletons-parents-met

According to The Daily Beast, Middleton likely got her penchant for traveling from her parents, Michael and Carole Middleton, who met when he was working as a flight dispatcher and she as a flight attendant with British Airways in the mid-1970s. The pair then dated, and traveled, for a number of years before marrying on June 21,1980 at the Church of St James in Buckinghamshire.

In May of 1984, the Middleton family moved to Amman, Jordan for Michael’s job. There, the Telegraph explained, Carol took her extended maternity leave from British Airways to spend time with her two girls. …

As Town&Country explained, in 1987 Carole left the travel industry behind and founded her company Party Pieces, which started as a small mail order party supply and decoration company. Now that company is estimated to be worth more than $50 million.

That's a whole lot of paper cups and balloons..

Jordan

Prince William visits Jordan ruins where Duchess of Cambridge was pictured as child http://archive.is/Dfm6z#selection-2145.1-2145.84

He was joined by Jordan's Crown Prince Hussein

Prince Hussein is a graduate of Georgetown University.

During William's visit, the site hosted a celebration for young people benefiting from the Makani programme, a nationwide charity that works with those from deprived backgrounds, especially refugee communities.

Makani Unicef https://www.unicef.org/jordan/overview_12172.html

Any relation to this Makani of Royal Dutch Shell and Google X? https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/alphabets-energy-moonshot-startups-makani-dandelion and https://royaldutchshellplc.com/2019/02/13/shell-invests-in-google-kite-flying/

Needs further invesitgation.. Reminds me of the Polaris question

Amman https://voat.co/v/JuiceTown/2406950/11975029

'In January, the Trump administration closed the operations center the CIA ran in Amman, the Jordanian capital, which coordinated aid to rebel organizations in southern Syria. '

Party Pieces website https://www.partypieces.co.uk/about-us

My first big break was after we distributed flyers with Red House Book Club. We grew quickly, and it wasn’t long before we had to find somewhere bigger to move to.

Red House Book Club from the Book People https://www.thebookpeople.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/help_topic?topic=about&storeId=10001&langId=100

The Book People, another multi-million company started out of a garage by an ex-policeman https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/aug/04/society

Behind these great offers lies some controversy: several sectors of the book trade are doubtful about The Book People's working practices. Agents and some authors complain that their deals are too tight. They talk of how the company is 'tolerated' only on the grounds that it is reaching an otherwise untapped market. Orders from The Book People appear on a writer's royalty statement as 'special sales' and are not subject to the standard contractual conditions an agent agrees with a publisher. 

Company information on Red House Book Club – has all the usual Finchley Road addresses – needs further scrutiny : https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/03306973/officers

One of the listed officers, for example https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/officers/B0GHP8rkHXwMGOElCSeIWrFbLno/appointments

is affiliated with something aclled the Chicken House https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chicken_House

Founded in 2000 by Barry Cunningham and Rachel Hickman as Chicken House Publishing,

The Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition was launched in 2008 by Chicken House and The Times newspaper. … 2015 winner 2015: Laurel Remington, The Secret Cooking Club

The Times/Chicken House Children's Fiction Competition judging day! (at Savile Club)

Yes, @kestrel9, the membership list of the Savile Club does raise eyebrows. One of those members was WB Yeats, I came across this recently:

The Monster in the Rainbow: Keats and the Science of Life - https://www.jstor.org/stable/823143?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

Need to dig out my notes to connect it with the other thread I was working on. Have to dash now .. family duites call..more later...

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letsdothis3 ago

More about the Chicken House: https://www.chickenhousebooks.com/meet-the-team/

https://www.chickenhousebooks.com/meet-the-team/

Barry Cunningham OBE has had an impressive career in publishing. After an English degree at Cambridge, he joined Penguin Books in 1977. As Children’s Marketing Director for Puffin, he worked with all the great names in children’s books including Roald Dahl and Spike Milligan, and was responsible for the re-launch of Beatrix Potter. In 1984 he was promoted to the Penguin Board and became responsible for the marketing of all Penguin Books, a position he held until 1988, when he was headhunted by Random House.

In 1994 he was approached by Bloomsbury to set up their first children’s book list. Not only was the new list a success, but Barry soon became one of the best known names in publishing after he signed up J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

letsdothis3 ago

Another affiliated company https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scholastic_Corporation

Scholastic Corporation is an American multinational publishing, education and media company known for publishing, selling, and distributing books and educational materials for schools, teachers, parents, and children. Products are distributed to schools and districts, to consumers through the schools via reading clubs and fairs, and through retail stores and online sales. The business has three segments: Children Book Publishing & Distribution (Trade, Book Clubs and Book Fairs), Education, and International. Scholastic holds the perpetual US publishing rights to the Harry Potter and Hunger Games book series.[3][4] Scholastic is the world's largest publisher and distributor of children's books and print and digital educational materials for pre-K to grade 12.

In addition to Harry Potter and The Hunger Games, the company is known for its school book clubs and book fairs, classroom magazines such as Scholastic News, and popular book series: Clifford the Big Red Dog, Goosebumps, The Magic School Bus, Captain Underpants, Animorphs, and I Spy. Scholastic also publishes instructional reading and writing programs, and offers professional learning and consultancy services for school improvement. Clifford the Big Red Dog serves as the mascot for Scholastic.

Scholastic has been criticized for inappropriately marketing to children. Also, Scholastic now requires parents to submit children's names with birth dates to place online orders, creating controversy. A significant number of titles carried have strong media tie-ins and are considered relatively short in literary and artistic merit by some critics.[19] Consumer groups have also attacked Scholastic for selling too many toys and video games to children, rather than focusing on just books