The Vanity Fair Diaries: The Magazine that Defined a Decade 1983–1992

Tina Brown

'Hang on - it's a wild ride' Meryl Streep
'Brilliant, concretely realised social history as much as a fabulous odyssey, and I read it in a mad frenzy' Stephen Fry
'Indiscreet, brilliantly observed, frequently hilarious' Evening Standard
'As delightful as eating a whole box of chocolates, without a trace of weight gain' Telegraph
'Heaven' India Knight, Sunday Times

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It's 1983. A young Englishwoman arrives in Manhattan on a mission. Summoned in the hope that she can save Condé Nast's troubled new flagship Vanity Fair, Tina Brown is plunged into the maelstrom of competitive New York media. She survives the politics and the intrigue by a simple stratagem: succeeding. Here are the inside stories of the scoops and covers that sold millions: the Reagan kiss, the meltdown of Princess Diana's marriage to Prince Charles, the sensational Annie Leibovitz cover of a gloriously pregnant, naked Demi Moore. Written with dash and verve, the diary is also a sharply observed account of New York and London society. In its cinematic pages the drama, comedy and struggle of raising a family and running an 'it' magazine come to life.