Penguin announces Helen Fraser Fellowship

02.12.09 Benedicte Page in The Bookseller

Penguin has established the Helen Fraser Fellowship in honour of its outgoing m.d., Penguin Group c.e.o. John Makinson announced at a farewell party for Fraser held at the Wallace Collection in London last night.

The fellowship will support the development of editorial talent from the Black and Ethnic minority community and will run annually, with the first recipient set to have a placement joining Simon Prosser at Hamish Hamilton. The establishment of the fellowship reflects Fraser's strong track record in supporting workplace diversity over her 13 years leading Penguin UK.

A crowd of over 300 came to bid a warm farewell to Fraser, with fellow Penguin staffers, agents and authors including Zadie Smith, Marian Keyes and Sue Townsend contributing to a video montage tribute in which she was described (and this is just the heavily edited version) as "witty", "wise","supportive", "uncompromising", "classy", "very, very clever", "inspirational", "empowering", "forensic", "kind", "a human dynamo", "ladylike", "passionate", "persistent", "deeply reassuring" and "just".

Fraser said: "It was a really fortunate moment 13 years ago when I came to Penguin. It is a really extraordinary company which reveres its heritage but is in no way intimidated by it. The desire to break boundaries and do new things affects the whole of Penguin and makes it an amazingly interesting place to work."

Fraser will take up a new role as chief executive of the Girls' School Day Trust in the New Year, and is also joining the board of Frances Lincoln.

Nicholas Clee writing in Book Brunch said Helen Fraser possesses .............a rare combination of attributes: a books person who is highly respected by authors but who has also been a skilled administrator; and a much-admired colleague who has been unsqueamish about taking tough decisions. Fraser started her career in the 1970s, when the shape of the industry was very different, but adapted to conglomerate publishing without compromising her publishing standards.