Alan Giles leaves his post as HMV chief executive at the end of the month, but he's got a new job already as chairman of Fat Face, the expanding ski and surfwear fashion chain. He also plans, the Guardian reports, to build a portfolio of non-executive directorships.

At the Independent, Giles spoke to Ian Burrell about the challenge of taking Waterstone's online as a separate entity after years of using Amazon.com's services. It's necessary, he says, because "internet purchasing... has become too large for us to feel comfortable about allowing our customers to deal with what is effectively a competitor. It's now too big and too important and we need to bring that back in-house." One of the ways of doing so is to mimic the "mini pithy reviews" written by staff on cards in various stores. "Everybody working in Waterstone's thinks that actually selling books is quite a good thing to do and so we want to build a website that conveys some of that character."