On 3 April 1988, at approximately 6.30pm, I was sitting with Kingsley Amis in the Members’ Bar, savouring the moist and somewhat brackish but – yes! – oddly alluring scent of congealed Weetabix on old tweed, when I was brought up with a start. Suddenly that most precious of aromas had been joined by a fierce waft of something infinitely more sinister. My nose has rarely worked harder: in those few ghastly seconds I sniffed out mimosa, orange-blossom, rose-petal, lime, geranium and more than a hint of lavender.As you may have guessed, the young Melvyn Bragg had entered, his election having been nodded through on the quiet. “If I had wished to join a florist’s, I would have applied to Interflora!” I whispered to Kingsley, who responded with a burp.Then, in June 1991, an edict from the Central Committee posted on the downstairs board sanctioned a draconian new rule: in future there was to be no breaking of wind before mid-day in the members’ drawing-room, and none whatsoever in the doorway, following complaints from members of the public.O tempora! O mores! But all is not lost. My new company, Arnold Smells, is to market a “Monsieur Le Garrick” roll-on deodorant come the summer. It is a heady mixture of milk of magnesia, boiled cabbage, Scott’s Oats and damp mackintosh.

It will knock all competing fragrances into the proverbial cocked hat Hurry, hurry, hurry, while stocks last!. What Delia Smith is to ingredients and cookware, Oprah is to gurus and authors. If Delia tells you coriander is the must-have ingredient, shops sell out; when Oprah features a career coach (as she did earlier this month), the United States responds. Laura Berman Fortgang has seen her book Take Yourself to the Top shoot up the US best-seller list in the days since she appeared on Oprah, with 25,000 extra copies printed. Coaching, which already had a limited chic, is now going mainstream. If you don’t know already, a coach is someone you hire to help you tone your professional, personal and spiritual life, just as you might hire a personal trainer to help you attain your physical best. What good fortune that Berman Fortgang had already committed to come to the UK today to promote her book and hold a workshop, before the Oprah effect made her unattainable.
Berman Fortgang’s book is for people who are gearing up for the Career Revolution, which she defines as “being ready to redesign work to fit your life instead of trying to squeeze your life into the space left over”.In these uneasy times of threatened recession, many people are wary of any revolution that could rock the boat, and are resigned to trading a life for a job.

The less timid are starting to hire coaches to help them to work the system. Berman Fortgang is used to approaches that start, “I want to have a coach as my secret weapon; I want to learn how to play the employer’s game”. That attitude, she says, “gives me heartache and stomach ache – it’s underhand. I say, `I’m the wrong coach for that game, but if you want to play another game, here’s the one I have in mind’”.The Career Revolutionary’s game involves taking charge rather than merely fitting in. You are encouraged to look at everything at work that is dragging you down and sapping your energy, and plan to eliminate every single one. Communication is key, and that includes the concept of “managing up”: not being afraid to tell your boss how to get the best out of you, without whining or complaining.

“What do you need? Most people know what they don’t like, but are not so clear on what they need to ask for without creating bad feeling I help them work out how to express it. You might say: `If you tell me two things I’ve done right before you criticise me I’ll work really hard’.”The other thing you are expected to do is become an intrapreneur – the employee who brings entrepreneurial thinking and skills to building a career path within the structure of an existing organisation. Shooting stars who seem to leapfrog effortlessly to the top have always done this instinctively; coaching passes on the necessary techniques to anyone willing to learn. It involves being a self-starter, resourceful, able to work without supervision, and – crucially – a team leader.