Arts: A week in the arts

Peter Blake's decision to hire lawyers to demand money from Apple for the use of his design of the Sergeant Pepper album sleeve in 1967 on the CD is perfectly understandable. The artist received just pounds 200 for his work, and it has really rankled. The look of the cover was an integral part of the record's appeal. But if, 30 years on, proper credit is to be given, then it should also include Blake's collaborator on the design, his then wife and fellow artist Jann Haworth.

Haworth is an interesting example of someone who has been written out of history, as far as the Pepper album goes, following her divorce from Blake. She is never mentioned in connection with it, though she was responsible for much of the concept - including the celebrities as cloth sculptures, in which she specialised. "I said how I thought it would be very nice not to have real lettering on the cover but to have something like clocks in civic parks, making the lettering an integral part of the piece," she told me. "The old lady and Shirley Temple figure in the foreground were mine, and the idea of going for 3-D figures in a setting was something I was doing at the time. The crowd concept was Peter's."

In other words, she was responsible for some of the most striking images on the cover. Peter Blake, to be fair, does not hide her contribution when asked about it. If Blake does at last win proper recompense from the surviving Beatles, then I trust that both he and they will also give proper recompense to Ms Haworth.

It comes as a shock to learn that Women in Publishing are to allow men to their awards ceremony next year for the first time, not as recipients - perish the thought - but as escorts. Sehaam Cyrani, an officer with WIP and an executive with Macmillans, explains: "Our policy has until now been women- only for both speaker meetings and social events. Male partners and colleagues who have supported nominees in their work should be allowed to celebrate their success."

That's jolly sporting. But the shock is not so much this magnanimous gesture by Women in Publishing to have a party, but the fact that there is such a pressure group as Women in Publishing. In my dealings with publishers, I rarely see a pair of trousers. Indeed, The Bookseller reports that 70 per cent of the publishing workforce are women. And unlike some occupations such as teaching, where women are in the majority of the workforce but under-represented at the top level, in publishing female representation is strong at all levels.