Jeri's baby

We were delighted to launch a new book at the Woodstock Literary Festival, our first book dedicated to the history and development of the gardens at Blenheim Palace. Jeri Bapasola has spent many many months researching new material for The Finest View in England: The Landscape and Gardens of Blenheim Palace - now out in hardback! While many of us know the broad brush-strokes of the big players (Henry Wise, "Capability" Brown and Achille Duchenne), Jeri has unearthed - mild pun intended - a wonderful wealth of detail on many other important contributors, not least several Dukes and many wonderful head gardeners.

Jeri has been one of the jewels of our business - an inspired researcher with a deep love of Blenheim Palace - who has produced a series of popular Blenheim Palace books (my favourite is Household Matters about the lives of the servants of the Palace) but this new book is her biggest opus yet. Watching her labour over the book is a little like watching someone go through pregnancy and labour (well, the view from outside the birth suite anyway - I'd probably be better to limit this particular metaphor). Yet she does it by choice and without getting a penny in royalties - simply happy to research the subject she loves and leave behind her a wealth of publications recording for posterity the stories she has uncovered and told.

For those of you who missed her launch and talk at the Woodstock Literary Festival (at which she was regaled by those Spencer-Churchills present), we will endeavour to persuade her to do some themed talks for our Annual Pass holders..... In the meantime, you will have to buy the book!

These books are all published by us rather than a third party, which means we take on the financial risk of printing everything up front - quite a commitment. But it was a relatively easy decision for a book filling a clear gap in our portfolio. As we stared at the main publishing business models, a friend pointed out that there was an older approach - publication by subscription. In older times, the first edition of a book would not be printed until a group of subscribers had been found to cover the cost of that first edition. the author would go to friends and sponsors, explain what the book was about and persuade 200 of them to pre-buy first editions in return for being named as a subscriber. If it then proved popular, the profits from the first edition would be reinvested in a second edition, which would be printed speculatively and so on.

Well, being a prudent (or mean, depending on your perspective) finance director, I persuaded Jeri and Odette Christie de Rivas (in our retail team) that this was the way to go. Did it work? Well, partly. We ended up with about 100 subscribers - whose names are beautifully printed in the front of the book - which both paid for a reasonable % of the print costs and also gave us confidence that the book would sell.

However, finding the subscribers was very hard work. Interestingly, writing to some of our Annual Pass holders produced slightly disappointing results, and an email shot to the rest of the database was even more disappointing. However, a Friends of Blenheim Palace cocktail party listened to a speech from our Chief Executive about news from Blenheim, in which he highlighted the subscription opportunity - and this speech triggered a rush of people into the arms of our waiting retail team and author and a lot of subscriptions. Obvious in retrospect, but not at the time, the vast majority of subscriptions were gifts to other people.

I suspect we will try this route again, applying our learnings from first time around. It was an interesting exercise which produced interesting insights into the level of engagement wanted by our visitors.

For those who did subscribe (including She Who Must Be Obeyed), they have the pleasure of both a very good book but also the knowledge that they have left their permanent mark of support on what will always be the definitive account of the gardens here at Blenheim Palace.

So, to Jeri, Odette, our retail team and all our subscribers - a big thank you!

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Autumn Fun

Had a lovely trip up to our friends at Harewood House on Friday, having a look at how they run their membership scheme. Their members are a much bigger part of their total business and they have been doing memberships for a long time so we are trying to learn as much as possible from people like them before we head into next year. If you do get up that way (they are just above Leeds) then I would definitely recommend a visit - this year the price includes a planetarium visit too! In Friday's balmy sunshine (Elaine tells me the sun always shines in Yorkshire), the Courtyard was a lovely relaxed lunch setting, with a side view of the penguins. Yes, really...

Our revised retail team lineup is taking shape, with Lucy heading off to Canada and Shelley Days has taken up a permanent contract with us. (And I do mean permanent, when you are a 300 year estate you do have a different sense of perspective from other enterprises - Shelley, did you really read the indefinite servitude clause?) The team had a superb stand at the very successful Blenheim Palace International Horse Trials and scored their highest ever sales at the event. The event itself was very well managed and enjoyed by a very large crowd - congratulations to Mandy Hervieu and her team for taking this event to another level.

And to my Spurs-supporting Chief Executive and Property Director, I have just two things to say to you. "Three" and "One". Sadly, Spurs title dreams evaporating appears to coincide with the melting away of the best of the Summer weather but do keep coming, we have so much more to offer you through the Autumn. Look out for Bike Blenheim Palace , The Independent Woodstock Literary Festival and Living Crafts for Christmas as well as our lowest ever priced Sunday Lunch in the Orangery!

Have a good week.

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Just stuff...

Wow, what an August we have had! OK, the weather was frustrating at times but we grew visitors by 50% in the month. One of the great things about Blenheim Palace is that we can, on the whole, grow visitor numbers without feeling particularly crowded so our visitors still get a great experience.

But it's back to school time now and that means the grown ups can come out to play. September is one of the best months to visit Blenheim Palace, with a glorious Indian Summer lighting the Palace and park landscape. I cannot let the moment pass without pointing out that if you have an Annual Pass (and why wouldn't you?) then you can come in and enjoy a briefer visit at no cost! I would particularly recommend a walk with a friend around Queen's Pool after the kids have gone to school....

Despite the busy Summer, our staff have grabbed the chance for holidays far and wide and have come back revitalised, just in time to relieve our wonderful seasonal staff who drive us through the Summer. Many of those are university students who come back to help us year after year - these are now heading back in waves to university. Well, except Emily File in our retail team whose term does not start until 8 OCTOBER. As her dad pointed out, more time for her to earn money.

One person sadly is going further and wider - we also say goodbye to popular retail assistant manager Lucy Tarrant who for some reason has decided to flee to Canada for a year. Was it something we said? Good luck Lucy, you'll be missed... hope you come back to us soon (with a Mountie in tow as discussed).

For myself, I did not go far (or indeed anywhere) but I did take a week to experience Oxford, with walks around the colleges, punting, Shakespeare on the roof of the Said Business School and, yes, a trip on an open-roofed double decker tourist bus! All great fun and very refreshing.

While we are generally staffing down, it is not a one-way process and we are looking to welcome two key members of new staff. Hopefully today we will confirm the appointment of a new retail supervisor to help replace Lucy. We are also about to start interviewing for a new role - Head of Membership. Yes, there are so many Annual Pass members out there (73,000 and counting) that we have decided to appoint someone very special to look after you all properly. We have had a great response to the advert and hope to make an announcement soon. This important role underlines our commitment to the Annual Pass scheme for the future.

Have a great weekend.

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