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The Glossy Years

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

Over his thirty-year career at Condé Nast, Nicholas Coleridge has witnessed it all. From the anxieties of the Princess of Wales to the blazing fury of Mohamed Al-Fayed, his story is also the story of the people who populate the glamorous world of glossy magazines. With relish and astonishing candour, he offers the inside scoop on Tina Brown and Anna Wintour, David Bowie and Philip Green, Kate Moss and Beyonce and a surreal weekend away with Bob Geldof and William Hague. The Glossy Years also provides perceptive insight into the changing and treacherous worlds of fashion, journalism, museums and a whole sweep of British society. This is a rich, honest, witty and very personal memoir of a life splendidly lived.

Critics Review

Coleridge is a witty writer . . . reading this book is like sitting next to a sharp but generous-hearted raconteur at dinner
Mail on Sunday
Has bounding vitality, glorious zest and and an uplifting generosity of spirit. It is always playful, sometimes hilarious - but above all it is wise
Richard Davenport-Hines, Literary Review
In these dark days of everlasting Brexit, Nicholas Coleridge's sparkling memoir is a welcome reminder that all is not gloom and doom. Witty, nimble and engaging, it is wonderfully entertaining and a marvellous slice of social history
Jane Ridley, Spectator
A deliciously moreish memoir of the author's glittering career in magazine publishing. Like having a really good gossip over a glass of fizz with Evelyn Waugh.
Allison Pearson, Sunday Telegraph

Tittle-tattle, tiffs and titanic egos, this book has them all. A hugely entertaining read by the ultimate insider

A Sunday Times best memoir of 2019
Forthright, witty and gossipy . . . a passion for glossy magazines shines through this effervescent memoir
Sunday Express
A Waugh-like whirlwind of eccentric characters, lavish parties and even a spell in a Sri Lankan jail. It was funny enough to excuse all the name-dropping
Evening Standard, Books of the Year
I truly think this is a brilliant book. laughed almost continuously
Charles Moore, The Spectator
Beady and slyly funny, my favourite bit concerns punctuation in the late Betty Kenward's society column. It's that kind of book
India Knight, Sunday Times
Gloriously funny, affectionate and well-written, his ear for how other people speak is mischievously spot-on and his optimism is infectious
Daily Mail, Memoirs of the Year
Author Nicholas Coleridge
Narrator Nicholas Coleridge
Duration 13 hours and 35 minutes
Release Date
ISBN 9780241438688
Format Audiobook
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Genre Autobiography: arts and entertainment, Autobiography: business and industry, Cultural studies: fashion and society
Availability AU, GB, IE, US

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