The Guardian profiles Sigrid Rausing, heiress to a sizeable fortune thanks to the Tetra Pak milk carton company and a major player in publishing thanks to two recent moves: first, the creation of Portobello Books, and now, her acquisition of the country’s top literary magazine.
But she tries hard, as she tells Aida Eimeriam, to play down her family billions in order to concentrate her efforts on her own assets, saying when she was younger, an aspiring academic living in a dingy London flat, she hid the fact of her wealth. Eventually, she sought therapy because: “I wanted to be who I was and didn’t want to hide anything any more. I know people who are emotionally crippled by money they inherited.”
Will she be a silent partner at Granta? Not a chance, and if the expectation was there it should be thwarted. And for those who are watching to see if the new-look magazine will fail, Rausing doesn’t mind so much. “I quite like it, actually. I find it incredibly stimulating.”