Cover stories: Caroline Michel; Macmillan; Mel Brooks

*Caroline Michel's move from Random House to HarperCollins, to become MD of the HarperPress division comprising Flamingo, Fourth Estate and HarperCollins non-fiction, has been greeted with enthusiasm at Fulham Palace Road. She will bring style and charisma to a company that – while improved since the dark days of Eddie Bell – is still seen as unsexy. But most assumed she would never leave Random House, with its A-list authors and New Labour connections. CEO Gail Rebuck was far from delighted at the news, and Christopher MacLehose, whose international Harvill list Michel helped bring to the firm, is distraught. She will be a hard act to follow.

* Although the Earl of Stockton remains president of his old family firm, there appears to be scant regard for history at Macmillan. German-owned since 1995, the house has disregarded the famous advice given by Harold Macmillan (first Earl) to Mrs Thatcher. Its family silver has been put on the auction block with the sale of Palgrave, the scholarly list most celebrated for The New Grove Dictionary of Music. Mr Harold, as he was always known at Macmillan, would not be pleased.

* Great news for anyone who has wept mirthfully through The Producers: Mel Brooks, writer and director, has signed a contract for his memoirs, due in 2004. "I'm one of the funniest and most entertaining writers I know," he quipped.