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  • Published: 29 September 2020
  • ISBN: 9780241342893
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 368
  • RRP: $22.99

The Glossy Years

Magazines, Museums and Selective Memoirs




A gossipy, scandalous and riveting memoir from the chairman of Condé Nast Britain

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.

  • Published: 29 September 2020
  • ISBN: 9780241342893
  • Imprint: Penguin General UK
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 368
  • RRP: $22.99

About the author

Nicholas Coleridge

Nicholas Coleridge has written for the Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph, Sunday Times, Evening Standard, Spectator, Vanity Fair, Tatler, GQ and Harpers & Queen which he edited for three years. He is managing Director of Conde Nast in London and is married with two children.

Also by Nicholas Coleridge

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Praise for The Glossy Years

I adored it. Coleridge has a Waugh-like eye for hilarious social nuance and a Henry Jamesian ear for precision. He is both self-deprecating and shrewd as he regales us with his rollicking ride as editor and tastemaker in the world of British glossy magazines: an irresistible read

Tina Brown

An entertaining whirlwind

Evening Standard

The most entertaining book of the year

Sunday Times

Coleridge is a witty writer . . . reading this book is like sitting next to a sharp but generous-hearted raconteur at dinner

Mail on Sunday

Gentle, jolly . . . Blissfully funny . . . One might wish to make people as happy, personally and professionally, as Coleridge has done - and will continue to do with this amusing book

The Sunday Telegraph

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

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

Forthright, witty and gossipy . . . a passion for glossy magazines shines through this effervescent memoir

Sunday Express

I truly think this is a brilliant book. laughed almost continuously

Charles Moore, The Spectator

Worth every penny for names dropped, inside stories, expertise in how that world worked and, endearingly, how his happy marriage and family have too

Susan Hill, Spectator

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

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

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

The memoir of a ludicrously well-connected magazine impresario. Whimsical tales of Bob Geldof, William Hague, Princess Diana and George Osborne jostle with recollections of glitzy parties at castles and producing the Eton magazine with Craig Brown. It's gossipy good fun

The Sunday Times Best Memoirs of 2019

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

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