LADY VAL CORBETT: GRATITUDE, LEGACY AND A FEW BAD JOKES

About 20 years ago I was sitting at my desk when the phone rang and the voice on the other end was Dr Vanessa Vallely OBE, founder of a women’s network called We Are the City. She wanted to introduce me to Lady Val Corbett who was looking for women to speak at a series of lunches she was running for her professional women’s network.  That’s how you did things back then!  

One-to-one introductions and in-person networking was vital for those of us building businesses back then, before we had LinkedIn and all things Meta. It was led by trailblazing women like Lady Val who started almost every conversation with the words: “Right, how can I help you, and how can you help me?”

If Lady Val taught us anything during her sparkling, uncompromising, and delightfully mischievous 80 something years – she famously took a pen to her driving  licence to shave off a few years – it was that women don’t change the world by sitting quietly in the corner. They change it by making noise, backing each other up, and refusing to let anyone put them in a box. 

Long before she carried a title – one she wore with a wink, often pointing out that being a peer’s wife still couldn’t get you a last-minute table in a full restaurant or an upgrade on a budget flight – she was Val Hudson, a trailblazing Fleet Street journalist. 

In the high-octane newsrooms of the 1960s and 70s, Val carved out her space alongside legends like Eve Pollard and Joyce Hopkirk, who I idolised when I started my own career in journalism and media back in the 1970s and 80s.  She ran an immensely popular advice and shopping page in The Sun, called ‘Little Val, the shoppers’ pal!’ a moniker that irked her for decades and became a running joke among those who knew that ‘little’ was the very last word you’d ever use to describe her personality or impact.

Val didn’t just break into male-dominated spaces; she left the door wide open behind her and installed a ramp. When she founded Lady Val’s Professional Women’s Network, she built it on two immovable pillars. The first was her adopted motto, courtesy of Madeleine Albright: ‘There’s a special place in hell for any woman who doesn’t help another woman.  The second was her legendary, no-nonsense networking icebreaker: ‘How can I help you, and how can you help me?’

There was no room for polite, timid small talk at a Lady Val lunch. You didn’t swap business cards and make vague promises to ‘catch up soon.’ You stated your mission, offered your support, and made things happen. She brought together CEOs, campaigners, and creatives, weaving a web of solidarity that elevated hundreds of careers, including many in our own Funny Women community.

Her drive for empowerment didn’t end in boardrooms or networking venues. Alongside her late husband, former MP and peer Robin Corbett, Val turned her passion into a crusade for criminal justice reform. Through The Corbett Network and the Robin Corbett Award, she raised funds and created real pathways into employment for people leaving prison. 

For example, they founded The Hoxton Apprentice,  an amazing training restaurant helping ex prisoners to rehabilitate into working life through catering and hospitality. This was also the setting for the first of the Lady Val lunches for professional women. 

Val understood that human beings are far more than the worst thing they’ve ever done, fighting tirelessly for second chances, dignity, and practical support. Profits from her networking  events went straight into helping returning citizens rebuild their lives.

Val was a force of nature – direct, fiercely intelligent, deeply compassionate, and wildly funny company. She knew that humour was the ultimate antidote to arrogance and ageism. Her terrible jokes, often featuring parrots, became a fixture of every lunch and occasion. The more dreadful and tasteless they were, the more we laughed. 

Val was never embarrassed or self deprecating. She shamelessly served up her ‘famous chicken salad’ (apparently famous for all the wrong reasons), gave away recycled gifts, told her often inappropriate jokes and never looked back. She would have loved all this attention!

When society told women of a certain vintage to quietly fade into the background, Val simply laughed, edited her official documents, and invited us all to party on down at her fun-filled lunches.

Those of us who were lucky enough to know Lady Val will miss her razor-sharp wit, her warmth, and the sheer audacity of her spirit. Her legacy lives on every time a woman lifts up another woman, every time someone gets a second chance at life, and every time we sit down at a table and ask, with absolute sincerity: ‘How can I help you?‘

Me pictured above with Lady Val at Brown’s Covent Garden, November 2024, when I was invited to speak at her network lunch shortly after receiving the ‘Most Inspiring Businesswoman’ award at the Best Businesswomen Awards 2024.