Books appear in many different formats, shapes, sizes and technologies. This autumn British Vogue: the Biography of an Icon will be available in three formats: the hardback version, the Kindle version and the audiobook. This last intrigues me. It is a combination of my words, an actor’s voice and a producer’s interpretation of both. And it is the melding of the three parts that can create a magical voice for the listener or can produce an inharmonious clang that sounds quite off note.
This time I have been very fortunate to have my book read by Katherine Manners, a British actress with a sparkling career on stage and film. She is also trained as a funeral and family celebrant and officiates at weddings, funerals, memorials and naming ceremonies, especially serving members of the LGBT community. Best of all she has just the right voice for my writing. And that matters. Too strident and my words sound as if they are created for am dram, too soft and they lose their way in a haze of aspirants. I think she has done an amazing job and I am so delighted that the audio book is now out.
People often ask me who my favourite editor/stylist/photographer was to write about. It is hard to say because each era produced not only great talent but fascinating reactions to the times. However, it would be difficult to overstate the importance of Lee Miller to Vogue during the Second World War and I love this short clip, read by Katherine, that describes Lee’s first experience of arriving in France to photograph a field hospital in August 1944.
Lee would go on to photograph and write about the liberation of Paris, the final battle ‘Nordwind’ in Alsace and her first-hand experience of the concentration camps of Ohrdruf, Buchenwald and Dachau. Although Audrey Withers only reproduced one image from those ghastly camps, she delivered Lee’s final diatribe against the Nazis almost unedited. It is an astonishing piece of writing for its undisguised anger and jarred with the upbeat message of the Victory issue in June 1945. Audrey may have lost her nerve over the images, but she knew exactly what she was doing by letting Lee’s disgust appear in print the magazine. This was my second opportunity to write about Lee Miller and Audrey Withers. I never tire of looking back at their extraordinary working relationship over an intense 18 months of the war. In Dressed for War I was able to devote a whole chapter to them and it is now the subject of LEE starring Kate Winslet with Andrea Riseborough as Audrey.
While Audrey is best known for her wartime work at Vogue, her successor, Ailsa Garland, is seldom celebrated. She edited Vogue for 4 years and oversaw the transformation of the magazine from the staid 1950s to the sexy, swinging sixties. She introduced David Bailey and Jean Shrimpton to her readers, she featured the Beatles and the Rolling Stones in 1963 and embraced the brilliant Vidal Sassoon. This clip marks that moment when the first green shoots of the new styles that came to define the decade were first seen.
One of the most enjoyable aspects of researching and writing this book has been watching the magazine change month by month. It reflects the time period in which it comes out, and each editor interprets the world according to Vogue. The longest serving editor, Alexandra Shulman, was at the helm for 25 years and presided over the tumultuous events around the turn of the century, from the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, to the Millennium, 9/11 and the Arab Spring. Her editorship was bold, creative and full of fascinating journalism as well as glorious fashion shoots. One of my favourite moments was when fashion features editor Harriet Quick summed up the new attitude towards body shape in 2003. I sense Katherine Manners much enjoyed reading that chapter.
Having had the most extraordinary fortnight following the discovery of Sandy Irvine’s boot on Everest and the subsequent media circus that resulted, I’m relishing the prospect of listening to Katherine reading words in my ear. If you are into audio books I do hope you will enjoy it as well.
