Featured on The Book Show on Sky Arts on 15 April 2010.
One of the most colourful and fabulous fashionistas in the country Nicky Haslam has been at the forefront of the fashion and celebrity world for decades. Mixing with supermodels, film stars and royalty he has now written a book about our culture and certainly has some tales to tell.
Nicky Haslam has found himself at the centre of the most interesting circles wherever he is - at parties, opening nights, royal weddings. In London in the late '50s he crossed paths - and more - with Cecil Beaton, Francis Bacon, Diana Cooper, Lucian Freud, David Hockney and Noel Coward. In the '60s, in New York, he encountered Dorothy Parker, Cole Porter, Andy Warhol, Jack Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe while working at Vogue and Show magazines, before decamping to a ranch in Arizona to raise Arabian horses, when he wasn't commuting to Los Angeles to decorate for the stars. Back in England in the early '80s, he attended the wedding of his cousin Diana Spencer and designed for everyone from James Goldsmith to Bryan Ferry. Haslam is a gifted and exuberant storyteller with an exacting eye for the telling detail. Redeeming Features is a fascinating look at our culture, a compelling and wholly singular document of our times.
Nicky Haslam has known everyone from Greta Garbo to Cole Porter to the Royal Family, with many unforgettable eccentrics in between. But this is not a catalogue of celebrities. It is a truly felt, beautifully crafted , wise consideration of a full life, which paints an unforgettable picture of a vanished England and America. Masterpiece is an overused word, but this Proustian evocation is indeed a masterpiece From the Mitfords to Warhol's Factory to Paris Hilton - Nicky Haslam has been at the centre of every glittering social circle in living memory... Haslam should be declared a National Treasure. While the nation's spirits are grievously low, Haslam brings joy and sprinkles magic dust of one sort or another wherever he goes. The Times Redeeming Features is a tour de force romp through high society and the more glamorous chapters in the counterculture of the 20th century and the 21st...Haslam pops up from decade to decade alongside some of the most fascinating people in our cultural history. Vanity Fair
Author
About Nicky Haslam
Nicholas Haslam is the author of Sheer Opulence and has been a contributing editor of Vogue and Tatler for many years. He also writes for The World of Interiors and The Spectator. He lives in London.
Nicky Haslam has found himself at the centre of the most interesting circles wherever he is - at parties, opening nights, royal weddings. In London in the late '50s he crossed paths - and more - with Cecil Beaton, Francis Bacon, Diana Cooper, Lucian Freud, David Hockney and Noel Coward. In the '60s, in New York, he encountered Dorothy Parker, Cole Porter, Andy Warhol, Jack Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe while working at Vogue and Show magazines, before decamping to a ranch in Arizona to raise Arabian horses, when he wasn't commuting to Los Angeles to decorate for the stars. Back in England in the early '80s, he attended the wedding of his cousin Diana Spencer and designed for everyone from James Goldsmith to Bryan Ferry. Haslam is a gifted and exuberant storyteller with an exacting eye for the telling detail. Redeeming Features is a fascinating look at our culture, a compelling and wholly singular document of our times.
Redeeming Features features in the following genres: Biographies & Autobiographies, eBooks of the Month, Biography, Literature and Literary studies, Recommendations
Redeeming Features is available in Hardback
Redeeming Features was written by Nicky Haslam and published by Jonathan Cape Ltd an imprint of Vintage
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