Cover Stories: Anya Serota; Random House reshuffle; Samuel Plimsoll

Another Serota looks set to make her mark on culture. Anya, daughter of Tate director Sir Nicholas, will relaunch the fiction list at the venerable John Murray, now part of Hodder Headline. It has lately published little fiction, but the backlist includes Booker-winner Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. Serota – who has worked for Macmillan – will build a list of between 15 and 20 novels a year.

* Just as London publishers had dispensed with books, concentrating instead on the party season, Tony Blair's buddy Gail Rebuck, CEO of Random House UK, decided to move the furniture. Kate Parkin, who joined in 1991 and was lately MD of Century, Hutchinson and Arrow, has abruptly resigned, opening the way for Richard Cable – seen by many as Rebuck's heir apparent – to take over. Susan Sandon, loyal group publicity director since 1995, is made his deputy and takes over as publisher of the Arrow paperback list.

* Samuel Plimsoll is a contender for a future Great Britons, for his campaign to make safe the lives of seamen put at risk by owners who over-insured over-loaded craft to claim the loot when they sank. It came close to toppling Disraeli, and resulted in the Merchant Shipping Act of 1876 and the international adoption of the Plimsoll Line. Nicolette Jones, a contributor to these pages, got hooked on the story – never properly told before – and is now at work on a book for Time Warner.