The Glossy Years

Magazines, Museums and Selective Memoirs

By: Nicholas Coleridge

Narrated by: Nicholas Coleridge

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.

Critic reviews

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

Has bounding vitality, glorious zest and and an uplifting generosity of spirit. It is always playful, sometimes hilarious - but above all it is wise

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

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.

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

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

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

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

Beady and slyly funny, my favourite bit concerns punctuation in the late Betty Kenward's society column. It's that kind of book

Gloriously funny, affectionate and well-written, his ear for how other people speak is mischievously spot-on and his optimism is infectious

a work of comic genius

havent enjoyed an audiobook so much since Ma'am Darling. brilliant and great narration by the author himself. this is a real gem.

A Glossy Life Well Lived — and Read Well

For Anglophiles only, this memoir is best for those who can answer YES to these questions:
1. Did you know who Tina Brown was before she became editor of Vanity Fair?
2. Can you identify the Cotswolds on a map?
3. Would you expect an Etonian to remain friends with his fellow old boys all through his life and to contrast these with the “fancy people” he has met through work in the upper echelons of Condé Nast?
4. Were you young in the 80s and middle aged by the 21st century?

If so, this charmingly read memoir of a charmed life is for you. Diverting, gossipy in positive ways (no cheap or nasty shots taken) of an incredibly extroverted media figure.

Coleridge once tells the story of being on a glamping trip in Ethiopia with his family when they decide to head for a remote night club. His jeep plunges down a cliff and lands on a shepherd’s hut. He and his wife — well into middle age— clamber up the cliff and proceed to the club. That is your narrator. No party or club he won’t attend and here he is to tell you all about it, charmingly and with a light touch and very pleasant cadence.

This book kept me company as I finished painting the porch of my house. Part of me critiqued the white male upper class privilege that fueled his “luck.” And I also admired his verve and hard work. As was often the case, his charm usually lulled my inner social critic and I ended up mentally gliding along, drinking in Coleridge’s life story vicariously as I labored.

A superfun inside look @ world of magazine editors

The story was great and I want to learn more about the characters. My only gripe is in re the audible version. There are several flaws in the recording. One where several pages are actually repeated in the recording,, one where you can hear the author actually correct himself and repeat the lines he has just read, and several areas were words are clipped off and you don't catch the whole word, or where you miss words because the recording skips like a scratched vinyl record.