Leading Publishing Director To Mark A New Chapter As Guest Speaker at Harrogate School Prize-Giving

Published by Ashville College on Tuesday 18th of July 2023

A HARROGATE school will welcome former pupil and top British and international publishing director Alexa von Hirschberg as the guest speaker at its annual prize-giving ceremony (Speech Day) to be attended by parents, pupils, staff, and governors.

The celebration will be held at Ashville College on Saturday 1 July, when awards will be presented to Senior School and Sixth Form pupils for exceptional academic achievements and notable contributions to College life.

Guest speaker Alexa was recently appointed publishing director at Weidenfeld & Nicolson, whose star-studded portfolio of authors include Michael Palin, Alice Walker and Phillippe Sands.

She had previously held the same role at Faber & Faber and before that spent 11 years working with Bloomsbury Publishing.

Since leaving Ashville 20 years ago, Alexa has built a career in publishing after graduating with a degree in English Literature and Language from King’s College, London.

She has worked with a range of bestselling and award-winning writers; at Bloomsbury these included Margaret Atwood and Reni Eddo-Lodge, and at Faber & Faber, the authors she represented included Kae Tempest, Don Paterson and Brian Eno.

Alexa said: “It is an honour to be invited back to Ashville to speak to the students on Speech Day. I look back fondly on my school years and hope to provide some insight into the thriving publishing industry in this country.”

In addition to taking the stage at Speech Day, Alexa will feature in the commemorative book, 40 Years, Stories, Women, which profiles 40 girls or women who have studied or worked at Ashville, and is a celebration of the four decades that the school has been co-educational.

The commemorative book will be launched on the afternoon after the Speech Day event, and will be attended by members of the school’s alumni organisation, the Ashvillian Society, as well as staff and other members of the school community.

The event is to be held in one of the school’s most historic buildings, the Memorial Hall, and will feature speeches, music performances and exhibits curated to celebrate the anniversary of co-education.