Successful business woman turns Author: We chat with Caraline Brown

Caraline, tell us a bit about you and your business career?

I am probably best known in Sussex as the woman who founded Midnight Communications with a £2k overdraft. I saw the potential of the internet and we became the very first PR agency in the country to specialise in this area. We were in the right place at the right time and I’m proud of the many ‘firsts’ we were able to promote – the first online divorce, the first online comedy club, the first online comparison service, the first online dvd and delivery service and many many more.

Along the way Midnight collected an array of industry awards, including PR Week’s national Consultancy of the Year, Best International PR Campaign and numerous silver and gold awards from CIPR PRIDE’s PR Agency of the Year.

I’m most proud of the face that so many of the individuals I have trained have gone on to hold leading roles in national PR agencies and for thirteen consecutive years a member of my team was named winner or finalist in the Young Communicator of the Year competition.

Prior to setting up Midnight I was part of the team that launched mobile phones to consumers. On my first day at work they gave me three or four sheets of A4 paper and said I should choose my own mobile number. I still have the same number.

I got to work with people such as Ruby Wax, Joana Lumley, Noel Edmonds and Tony Blackburn. That was fun!

After leading such a successful business career was it always your plan to start writing?

My entire career has always been guided by a desire to write but I never really had the chance to write fiction whilst I was a busy Managing Director. Once I had sold the business to the management team I was free to indulge my passion. I feel blessed that I now get to spend my days writing.

When did your passion for writing start?

I won a couple of competitions for my short stories many years ago but my main ambition in life has been to write a novel.

I think I first got the idea when I was about seven or eight years old and I managed to fill an entire exercise book with a single story. I was also greatly encouraged by my next door neighbour (to whom I have dedicated my first book). She wrote novels such as The Dame Plays Rough, White Curves and Black Coffee and The Lady says When under the pseudonym Danny Spade.

Tell us about the new book?

Set in late eighteenth-century London, the story features Lillian, a freakishly tall woman who struggles to fit into society because of her size and desire to wear trousers. Each morning, she wakes in her tiny maid’s room in a too-small bed to the sound of a lion roaring nearby, on the Strand. One day she investigates the sound and discovers a candlelit exotic animal emporium. When she meets the lion, there is an instant bond.

At first, Lillian is repulsed by the stench and squalor, but there, in the menagerie, Lillian finds her natural home taking care of and befriending wild animals brought from around the world, stolen from their habitats, misfits like her. The menagerie, under Lillian’s management, becomes a successful attraction. It is her life’s mission. She even marries the veterinarian’s single-minded apprentice. But when her unborn baby dies in an accident, its replacement, upends the order of even Lillian’s unusual existence.

Where did the inspiration for the book come from?

By chance I came across a non-fiction book called The Georgian Menagerie which coincided with an exhibition in the Brighton Pavilion. I wondered what it might have been like to work in such a place. I also thought it was quite an unusual setting for a novel.

What’s next for Caraline Brown?

I’ve almost finished my second book and have an idea for a third. All are

set around the same time and reference characters from each other. Then I plan to write something that is more contemporary.

I would still like to be involved in the work of business and I’m keen to pass on my skills to new companies and individuals. I often take on writing or editing projects. I had to learn the hard way as my business grew so I’ve probably experienced most business issues in my thirty year career – from buying and selling companies to recruitment issues, hiring and firing and marketing.

So if anyone out there needs a non-exec… do think of me.

Caraline Brown