Chanel's Riviera

Praise for Chanel's Riviera: Dishy and well-researched...this fluidly written history succeeds in capturing the era's intoxicating mix of glitz and grit. --Publishers Weekly De Courcy is adept at describing displays of opulence, and proves equally capable when portraying the deprivations and reversals of fortune occasioned by the onset of WWII...this will be popular with royal watchers, fashionistas, and readers who relish the international social scene. --Booklist A gleaming social history of the French Riviera in the 1930s...[a] lovingly researched portrait of paradise. --Kirkus Reviews Love a bit of real-life sex, disappointment and scandal from some of the 20th century's biggest icons all set against an impossibly luxurious and elegant French backdrop? Then Anne De Courcy's biography of a very select time and place is for you...You'll come away from reading it both better informed and utterly transported. --Stylist, Best Summer Books 2019 (UK) [A] sparkling, anecdote-rich narrative. --The Times (UK) A well-researched and compelling story...Drawing on an immense volume of material, [de Courcy] has succeeded not only in constructing an intriguing portrait of Chanel herself but also in expertly conjuring the two very different worlds that then existed side by side. --Selina Hastings, Literary Review (UK) [A] gripping, rousing study. --Daily Telegraph (UK) 'Entertaining...This book is stuffed with...bizarre anecdotes and gossip. Anne de Courcy makes a highly amusing guide to the shenanigans, foibles and affairs of the rich and famous. -- Anne Sebba, History Today Praise for The Husband Hunters: [The American heiresses] were just what was needed to shake the cocktail and bring some pizazz to the party. De Courcy conjures it all with skill. --New York Times Book Review, Editor's Choice A true account of the women who inspired Downton Abbey. --Vanity Fair Witty and well researched, Anne de Courcy brings to colorful, dramatic life these dollar princesses whose vast fortunes propelled them to glittering trans-Atlantic marriages that captivated international society. --Daisy Goodwin, New York Times bestselling author of The Fortune Hunter Anglophiles fascinated by the intricate tribal codes of the British upper classes will find plenty to feed their interest. --Boston Globe Vanderbilts, Astors, Churchills, Marlboroughs; diamonds, tiaras, yachts, mansions; all are documented in glorious detail and should satisfy those readers with insatiable thirst for all things peerage. --Booklist Downton Abbey fans will swoon over this trip through the privileged turn-of-the-century world of cash, class, and coronets...De Courcy brings the Victorian and Edwardian eras vibrantly to life with her meticulously well-researched book, conveyed in an approachable prose style...A highly readable social history that contains all of the juicy drama of a prime-time soap opera. -Kirkus Reviews Amusing [and] breezily readable. --Washington Times