Harriet Hastings set up Biscuiteers, the inspired site selling ‘almost too pretty to eat’ hand-iced biscuit gifts. Harriet has a background in publishing and helped launch the Orange Prize in 1996, now the Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction. She became MD for the prize in 2004. Harriet was awarded a Specsavers Everywoman Retail Ambassador award and the Investec Food & Drink Entrepreneur of the Year award. Here, discover the spookily accurate weather app keeping Harriet dry on her bike, how she met Caitlin Moran and her anxiety about her children online.
Biscuiteers Iced Biscuits

My favourite website... The Outnet - I love a browse this site as I buy pretty much everything online but I also like contemporary design websites and online auction sites. Design trends are very important to us when we are designing our biscuit collections.

My favourite app... Dark Sky - It is excellent for avoiding getting wet when I am on my bike. It is spookily accurate! I also love Find My Friends and use it to keep an eye on my children. They think that I am stalking them but really I am only taking a friendly interest! I find it very reassuring if they forget to phone.

My blog of choice... I have a special interest, as I am MD of the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction but always make a point of following the blog. It is great for keeping up with contemporary women’s fiction.

My internet hero.. Jeff Bezos - He is the most influential game changer. It is impossible not to admire the breadth of ambition of Amazon and the sheer extraordinary efficiency of the service. Amazon is probably the website I use most frequently.

My most recent buy online... a fantastic ponyskin chair from Onske.

Book just downloaded/ read... I am catching up on my Baileys Prize reading as the long list was announced on 8th March. I have just finished Rose Tremain’s ‘Gustav Sonata’ and I am just starting ‘The Power’ by Naomi Alderman.

Favourite tweeter... I am not very active on Twitter but I do follow @everydaysexism as I really admire Laura Bates and everything she has done to bring sexism into mainstream consciousness.

Favourite instagrammer... @plansouthamerica - Primarily I use it to follow my family and friends but this feed is inspiring. I want to go to South America soon.

Social media allowed me to meet... Caitlin Moran - We connected online first and then she agreed to judge the Baileys Prize a couple of years ago.

Most worthwhile newsletter subscribed to... The Pool - There are some really great writers and I like its fresh approach to online magazines.

Pet hate about life online... It is hard for any of us to know when to stop. I get particularly anxious about my children who seem almost biologically attached to their phones, but possibly that’s becoming true of us all.

Stand out online memory... I started working in tech really early, right back in the dot.com boom era when I ran the consumer tech division of a PR company. I particularly remember seeing the original Autonomy software. It was the first search software I had ever really seen and at the time was used for searching police databases. It was the beginning of search which we now use every day.

iPhone or Android? iPhone. I like the big one and have just got the new iPhone 7. It is worth it for the camera.

March 2017