'Christmas is so many things, but it is also quite simply a moment of pause between the year that's ending and the year ahead. And as every writer knows, pauses can be extraordinarily powerful.'

It may be the most wonderful time of the year, but Christmas is also very often a hot mess of busy-ness, stress and tricky relationships. So in these few days as the excitement/expectations build, here's an invitation to press pause, just for a few minutes, and try something a little different.

Because Christmas - together with the odd days of Twixmas that follow ahead of the new year - is a great opportunity to press pause just for a few minutes. And sometimes, that the gift we REALLY needed.

'Almost every experience that I have is a story that I'm going to tell.'

We often think of great leadership as 'magic,' but the truth is that's a convenient excuse. Great leaders aren't born that way - they become great by leaning in to what John Amaechi describes as ' a very boring set of skills and a huge amount of personal effort'.

John's own background in the NBA showed him that the most extraordinary athletic achievements are the result of dull, consistent, mundane practice. That makes greatness accessible - though not necessarily easy - for anyone who chooses it.

One of the most fundamental skills of leadership is storytelling, and John is a master at turning the raw material of daily experience into stories that connect, challenge and inspire. He has a model of storytelling that I guarantee you'll never forget. And why turn stories into books? Because books force the 'so what?' question. And that changes everything.

'The research shows that it's stories that are the most powerful mobilizers of change.'

What does 'story' mean to you? Zoe Arden asked that question of more than 100 people, beginning her research, as she encourages us all to begin our stories, by listening first.

Leaders have at their disposal more facts and data than ever before, but the research and our lived experience confirms that facts and data are not what we need to catalyse real change. Our brains are wired in such a way that only stories have the power to mobilise us into action - they are, in Zoë's words, both levers of connection and levers of change, so understanding how they work is vital for any leader who wants to gets stuff done.

But stories aren't just for telling, they're for living - and we need to make choices about the stories we tell ourselves, more or less consciously, just as much as the ones we craft for others.

Zoë's own story of finding her voice as a writer amongst the many voices of her interviewees will be invaluable if you're drowning in reseach, and her remarkable journey to publication might just be the inspiration you need to get started...

'When you read a book... it's like when you watch a TV show or go to the theatre; you don't think about all of the work that went in behind the scenes.'

I don't know about you, but I couldn't claim any of the following distinctions before I turned 26: flying a spaceship, losing a million dollars, being fired by Simon Cowell or dodging paparazzi.

Dominic Colenso, author of Cut-Through, ticked off all of these in the course of his acting career. Life is a little calmer now that he's discovered how his acting skills could translate into a unique framework for effective business communication, helping leaders and teams pitch and present with impact.

It turns out that rehearsing for a stage role has many parallels with preparing a business pitch, and even with writing a business book - not just delivering a message, but discovering the purpose, distilling the essence, drilling and debriefing repeatedly to get feedback on and refine the text.

And if you've been making excuses as to why now isn't the right time to get started, prepare to have them blown away...

' This technology isn't going to go away. We need to figure out what role it has.'

George Walkley is a legend in the publishing world. Over the last three decades, and particularly at Hachette, he has not only witnessed but helped shape the digital transformation of the industry, and these days he's focused on how publishers respond to the challenges and opportunities of AI.

While the book itself has proved remarkably resilient as a technology, technology has transformed the ways in which they are written, discovered, read and published. What are the ethical and practical considerations of AI for publishers, authors and readers? And what does all that mean for George himself as he writes and considers how to publish his OWN book?

Essential listening for anyone curious about where publishing is going, and the implications for authors, plus top tips on building an audience through writing an unmissable newsletter.

When we talk about writing business books, we usually focus on concepts, models, clarity, structure, impact. But alongside the head work is a whole invisible heap of emotional labour: behind every sentence lies a secret history of fear, doubt, frustration and occasionally joy. In this Best Bits episode, we're bringing that emotional undercurrent front and centre.

Because writing a business book, just like starting a business, isn't simply an intellectual exercise. There's a profound inner journey behind every book, from the creative spark of the idea, so often born of frustration, through the gritty, vulnerable, exhausting middle, the stress of overwhelm and deadlines and the courage it takes to complete, and throughout it all, the unexpected moments of joy.

Writing a book is a whole-brain, whole-person exercise, and these conversations prove it. Hear from:

• Eleanor Tweddell on turning anger and confusion into the first steps of the writing journey.
• Parul Bavishi on accepting fear as part of the process and showing up anyway.
• Rachel Fairley and Sarah Robb on building trust and joy through collaboration.
• Alice Driscoll and Louise van Haarst on navigating difficult moments with curiosity and respect.
• Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic on the three moments of joy (and the many hours of masochism).
• Maria Franzoni on falling out of love with you book (and then back in again).
• James Spackman on making choices guided by pride, joy and connection.
• Sally Percy on overcoming overwhelm.

The work is real - but the good news is you don't have to do this alone.

'If you haven't diagnosed where the problem lies in the first place, how do you know which lever to pull?'

If your idea of a rebrand is a new colour palette and an updated logo, think again.

Too often, superficial design changes don't just fail to deliver growth, they actively damage the brands they were intended to bolster. Rachel Fairley and Sarah Robb have helped some of the world's biggest companies refresh their brands from the inside out. They argue that rebranding is more a strategic undertaking than a design project, and it's definitely NOT something that should be driven by a new leader's ego.

This is a conversation for anyone invested in understanding the deeper mechanics of making a brand work over the long term, but also for anyone who wants to write a book that makes a real difference for its readers.

'That's all we've got as well in this age of AI… we have to put heart and soul into what we create.'

When someone cheerfully tells you that when one door closes another door opens in the midst of the rawness of redundancy, you'd be forgiven for wanting to punch them. Eleanor Tweddell certainly did. But then she made a conscious decision to 'lean in' to the idea of another door. It turns out that opportunity is often disguised as messy chaos – it's all about how you choose to view it.

Eleanor shares how her 'Another Door' blog, podcast and book came about – the idea that wouldn't leave her alone, the conversations that moved it forward and the creative process that begins – like all good things – with a whiteboard and is so very, very different from the polished, orderly approach of her corporate comms background.

This is a conversation about what it means to be human in the act of creation, and to seek out connection before your ideas feel ready to share. It's about jealousy and comparisonitis and courage and designing for your reader, and it might just be the best thing you hear this week.

'The absence of healthy conflict is a large part of why people will leave jobs, because it's not where the growth happens.'

How do you feel about hard conversations at work?

Our approaches to conflict are often less than smart. Whether your tendency is towards avoidance or aggression, unless you're actively rejecting 'enforced harmony' for an environment in which people are able to disagree well, you're not getting the best out of your individuals or your organization. (Plus, given that most people are so bad at it, mastering hard conversations is the ultimate leadership edge.)

Alice Driscoll and Louise van Haarst, co-authors of Smart Conflict: How to Have Hard Conversations at Work, are experts at diagnosing the wide range of conflict styles and helping leaders make better decisions about how they adjust their approach for the situation and the person in front of them.

But could they walk the talk when it came to the ultimate stress test: writing a book together for the first time? Spoiler alert: yes. But what they discovered in the process will be gold to anyone considering a co-authored project.

Fresh (if you can call it that) from the Frankfurter Buchmesse 2025, I'm here this week with a candid look at what we and other publishers were talking about over those three hectic days - global sales, routes to market, Amazon and its new algorithm, AI, digital library platforms, translation rights and the evolution of metadata - and what all of that means for authors.

Plus why I HAD to go and have a good time each night - publishing runs on ideas, caffeine and relationships, and the Frankfurt Book Fair delivers all of these in spades.