Diary: That’s not my… book idea

Nicola Gooch, planning partner at Irwin Mitchell, is a fine writer, so Diary has every confidence she could make a success of her latest idea, shared on LinkedIn. Gooch informed her followers that she spent a chunk of last week trying to explain her job to her youngest child, aged three. “We have decided,” she revealed, “that being a planning solicitor is quite a lot like being the fussy mouse that narrates the That’s not my… series of Usborne books. ‘That’s not my s106 Agreement – the obligations are not reg.122 compliant.’ ‘That’s not my s106 Agreement – the definitions are not being used consistently.’ ‘THAT’s my s106 Agreement – there is an overseas signatory. Can we use DocuSign?’ We think there might be a series in it.” Diary totally agrees, Nicola. But why stop there? There could be a whole publishing line of children’s books for tomorrow’s real estate professionals. Diary of a NIMBY Kid. The ESG. Where the Wild Things Are to be Sustainably Relocated In Order to Comply With Biodiversity Net Gain. It could run and run. No news is not good news Now Diary has returned, we are getting back in the groove with some of our old habits – such as our tradition of offering a little, shall we say, constructive criticism of press releases that need some work. Rule number one, if you want to grab our attention? Try telling us something! This week, our news team received a release on a recently completed loan for a real estate acquisition. Colour us potentially interested. Except, the missive elaborated (or, rather, failed to elaborate), the purchase is of two unnamed resi blocks… by an unnamed buyer. One thing we do know, it is in Worcester.  Also, one of the blocks has been “marketed for lettings” while the other is being sold by a real estate investment group (you guessed it, unnamed). We can only hope the tenants are provided with more information on their new landlord than we are. Meet the team: Jess Harrold, legal & professional editor Tell us about your history with Estates Gazette – before you joined and after? We’re talking almost a quarter of a century at this point, yikes. I wrote news stories for Estates Gazette as a freelance court reporter in the first week of my journalism career, in late 2000. I came in house just over a decade ago. Nine years spent working alongside the legendary Sarah Jackman set me up to take over as legal & professional editor last April – and the past 12 months has been quite the roller coaster ride. What do lawyers love about Estates Gazette – and if they don’t read us, why should they start? First off, they love calling us Estates Gazette (and the real sticklers still prefer “The Estates Gazette”). I think they value reading high-level legal analysis from some of the finest minds in the business alongside our news team’s invaluable insights into the deals being made by their clients (and potential clients). Bringing that together in one place is our USP. Readers might not know about that you also have a double life working with Marvel… I used to keep my alter ego a secret, but more people know about it now. I have worked for Marvel since 2008, culminating in me authoring more than 20 coffee table art books celebrating Marvel comics, films and TV series. I quip in my bio that I specialise in superheroes and property law, though rarely at the same time. However, my latest book, just out, does actually combine Marvel and real estate, in that it is all about the artwork on display at a Disneyland Paris hotel: Disney Hotel New York – The Art of Marvel: The Complete Art Collection, published by Gestalten. Who would you be in an Estates Gazette version of the Avengers? Based on who has appeared in this column so far, Tim is our fearless leader, Captain America: he can do this all day. Martha is our real powerhouse, so she’s Captain Marvel. I’d love to be Spider-Man, the comic relief – and running L&P comes with its fair share of responsibility. The first issue starring Spider-Man sold in 2021 for £3.6m. What Jess Harrold Estates Gazette byline should be a collector’s Holy Grail? Well, I’m not sure how much it is worth on the aftermarket, but my favourite deep cut from the archives would have to be “Prime reel estate: the 10 best properties in film,” way back in 2018: It entertained me, if nobody else. Main image © Adobe Stock/Jess Harrold image © Colin Miller