Read Online Please Let It Stop by Jacqueline Gold - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Jacqueline Gold
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broke up Vanessa was there for me. Since then we have seen each other through joy, drama, sadness and some seriously fun times. Vanessa had enjoyed her time at school and followed it up with secretarial college. At one time she wanted to do something with aero-planes. She often talked about being an air traffic controller or an airline pilot, a direction which she obviously picked up from my father’s love of flying planes. At the same time she was always being told by friends how beautiful she was – she’s blonde with large, almond eyes, gorgeous olive skin and a fantastic figure – and they suggested she should model, so she joined an agency and did this for a while. She also did some modelling for Ann Summers but it was not something she wanted to pursue in a major way. In 1983 she joined me in the business. She was looking for pocket money so I started her off in the post room and she soon became one of the operators on our orderline.
Vanessa moved around the company and was eventually reporting directly to me. There were times when she forgot we were in a business relationship and she would cross boundaries – as when she burst into my office unannounced to tell me she was angry about something, but then she was at that time only seventeen. She soon realised that this sort of behaviour wasn’t appropriate for the office. Like me, she hasworked in many different areas of the business including, marketing, design and buying and merchandising, which has given her a wealth of knowledge across the whole business. Vanessa has always shown great passion and commitment towards Ann Summers and in 2000 I was very proud to be able to promote her to Buying Director. She excels in many areas especially product development, which is critical to our business, and negotiating – thanks, to Vanessa, we now have one of the best margins on the high street. She is a great communicator at all levels which has been particularly valuable when dealing with councils. If you have members of your family working for you, you need to establish that a job in the business is an opportunity, rather than a birthright, and Vanessa has earned her position in the company.
When we’re not working we both love getting dressed up and going out. We had both lived such a sheltered life that the times Vanessa came around to my house in Chaldon in the 1980s to go out were a major event in themselves. We would spend a lot of time getting ready, listening to music and chatting. In some ways the drive to the bar or club was the most exciting part – this was hardly surprising, given that the night out would consist of the two of us driving to the place, going in, ordering a soft drink and waiting on the side of the dance floor for either Taylor Dayne’s ‘Tell It To My Heart’ or Womack & Womack’s ‘Teardrops’ before leaving to go home! We still laugh about it to this day.
As our world has become bigger and we have expanded our social horizons, we’ve had some very amusing times. One of these happened at the Emporium nightclub in Leicester Square in the late 1990s. Vanessa and I were meeting our friend Anna-Marie and she’d invited us into the club’s VIP area. As we entered we didn’t realise that the bouncer needed to stamp our hand as proof of entry, so when we left our bags, coats and champagne to go and have a dance we were horrified to find on our return that he wouldn’t let us back in. I tried to explain the situation in my normal business-like manner, but he was a typical ‘jobsworth’ with a serious power attitude and refused to even listen to what I had to say. Vanessa then went to the bar, hoping to find somebody more helpful. In my wisdom (and out of sheer desperation) I had taken a long run at the steps leading to the VIP area, hoping to dodge the six-foot bouncer. Vanessa says she has no idea what I thought I would achieve but I succeeded in being caught, lifted and manhandled to the dance floor with the words ‘you are
Vanessa moved around the company and was eventually reporting directly to me. There were times when she forgot we were in a business relationship and she would cross boundaries – as when she burst into my office unannounced to tell me she was angry about something, but then she was at that time only seventeen. She soon realised that this sort of behaviour wasn’t appropriate for the office. Like me, she hasworked in many different areas of the business including, marketing, design and buying and merchandising, which has given her a wealth of knowledge across the whole business. Vanessa has always shown great passion and commitment towards Ann Summers and in 2000 I was very proud to be able to promote her to Buying Director. She excels in many areas especially product development, which is critical to our business, and negotiating – thanks, to Vanessa, we now have one of the best margins on the high street. She is a great communicator at all levels which has been particularly valuable when dealing with councils. If you have members of your family working for you, you need to establish that a job in the business is an opportunity, rather than a birthright, and Vanessa has earned her position in the company.
When we’re not working we both love getting dressed up and going out. We had both lived such a sheltered life that the times Vanessa came around to my house in Chaldon in the 1980s to go out were a major event in themselves. We would spend a lot of time getting ready, listening to music and chatting. In some ways the drive to the bar or club was the most exciting part – this was hardly surprising, given that the night out would consist of the two of us driving to the place, going in, ordering a soft drink and waiting on the side of the dance floor for either Taylor Dayne’s ‘Tell It To My Heart’ or Womack & Womack’s ‘Teardrops’ before leaving to go home! We still laugh about it to this day.
As our world has become bigger and we have expanded our social horizons, we’ve had some very amusing times. One of these happened at the Emporium nightclub in Leicester Square in the late 1990s. Vanessa and I were meeting our friend Anna-Marie and she’d invited us into the club’s VIP area. As we entered we didn’t realise that the bouncer needed to stamp our hand as proof of entry, so when we left our bags, coats and champagne to go and have a dance we were horrified to find on our return that he wouldn’t let us back in. I tried to explain the situation in my normal business-like manner, but he was a typical ‘jobsworth’ with a serious power attitude and refused to even listen to what I had to say. Vanessa then went to the bar, hoping to find somebody more helpful. In my wisdom (and out of sheer desperation) I had taken a long run at the steps leading to the VIP area, hoping to dodge the six-foot bouncer. Vanessa says she has no idea what I thought I would achieve but I succeeded in being caught, lifted and manhandled to the dance floor with the words ‘you are
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