Coco goes to Scotland

If there are any Scottish readers of this blog, I'd like to invite you to the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh on Tuesday 28th September at 5.30pm. There will be something to drink, time to talk, and I'll be speaking about Chanel's connections with Scotland (including her skill with a fishing rod).
RSVP to: balmoral@harpercollins.co.uk
0208 307 4300

In the bedroom with Coco

Have been hither and thither this week, but also managed to spend some time in my own bedroom with Mademoiselle Chanel. The pictures above are not, however, in my house -- you'll see from the little film that I've posted that I live within white walls -- but I was lucky enough to visit the London house that Chanel inhabited, during her love affair with the Duke of Westminster. Just look at the birds and the camellias on the wallpaper. They seemed to me to be a magical reminder of her presence -- one of those rare moments when the universe chimes, and the veil between the past and present becomes translucent.
Very much hoping to meet some of you at Waterstones Kensington High Street this evening. Please do come and say hello!

Sunday night, Monday morning...

Internet back on, thank goodness, after 48 hours of irritation and fiddling with widget and hanging on phone for Talk Talk call centre (no talking, just the 7th circle of limbo). Kind of appalled at how dependent I have become on constant online access, but without it, I felt like I'd lost access to a layer of the outside world.
Meanwhile, have been for a walk in the local park, where the leaves are just beginning to look autumnal. Pale clouds scudding across the sky, and on the horizon, Alexandra Palace looked close enough to reach out and touch.
Home to cook sausages and onion gravy with peas and baked potatoes -- comfort food -- followed by apple pie. Reading Bella Pollen's new novel, The Summer of the Bear, and very much enjoying it. It's such a lovely feeling, having been submerged in writing my own book, to discover someone else's. Whenever I'm working on a book, I tend not to read anything unrelated. Hence my reading list for Chanel was entirely focused on the milieus she inhabited -- broad enough to include Scott Fitzgerald, Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh (Vile Bodies even mentions Chanel), so I can't complain -- but not much time for contemporary novels. So, lots to catch up with...
Up early tomorrow to go to Calcot Manor to talk at a literary lunch. Wish I was staying there for longer, but at least I'll get to sniff a breath of Cotswolds air.
Speaking of which, I've just remembered that I must remind people of a forthcoming event I'm doing at the Bath Theatre Royal on November 18th. Memo to self: must write down dates in my diary, as well as on blog, just in case Talk Talk goes silent again.
PS. Anyway with an interest in Virginia Woolf might be amused (or bemused) by my column about camel coats in the Telegraph today. Incidentally, has anyone discovered Mrs Woolf's articles for Vogue?

Chanel Unveiled

... She is looking pristine, but I am somewhat muddled and smudged, having had very little sleep after an amazing party at Claridges. Today I am juggling calls to a locksmith (a broken key in the back door), an electrician (no lights in the sitting room), my internet service provider (how can it be faulty this week, of all weeks?), the Royal Parks phone line (why do they do they hand out parking tickets on a Sunday evening for Regent's Park?) and the imminent arrival of a television crew. Oh, and I look like a panda.
Still, am feeling very cheered that people seem to be enjoying the book. Here is Jessica Bumpus at Vogue and Rosie Cowling at Stylecramp and something good from pure wow.
PS. Oh, and this is a piece I wrote about Chanel in London in yesterday's Evening Standard. And a q&a in Harper's Bazaar. (There's also a far longer feature in the October issue of Bazaar, but I'm not sure if that's available online.)
And have just been reading Oxford Reader, in a brief window of internet connection. I'm so glad she commented on the delicious scent of a new book. I do think mine smells lovely; a sort of clean woodiness.
PPS. Am going to bed now. Am verging on that dangerous line between tiredness and derangement. But I must say, watching Star Trek with my son, after a hearty Japanese takeaway and a large slice of berry cheesecake, was excellent therapy. Live long and prosper...

Today is the day...

... that my book is published! Just got my order from amazon -- yes, I ordered my own book, because I wanted to get one of the limited edition book bags with a gorgeous black and white illustration by Karl Lagerfeld. I love the look of the book -- although I have twisting knots in my stomach about its delivery into the hands of critics -- but I do feel unadulterated pleasure at finally seeing the book bag. Simple linen, with the clean lines of a Lagerfeld sketch of Mademoiselle Chanel on the front.
I hope those of you who pre-ordered from amazon will have received your copies today. When you do, have a peek under the glossy wrap-around cover, and see the secret beneath...

Through the wardrobe...

OK, here's my attempt at coaxing Chanel out of the shadows. Hope you like the film: it was made in my (very messy) study, where I sit and write this blog, and you also get to see my bedroom. I've just tried to watch the video on amazon, and it keeps crashing (whenever I get to Chanel's apartment -- mysteriously, the computer says no); but hopefully some of you will persevere with it. Let me know what you think!

An evening with Coco Chanel

I've just added a few links (see right) for upcoming events and talks that I'm doing this autumn. The first is at Waterstones in Kensington High Street on September 23rd; it starts at 7pm, so I do hope some of you may be able to come.
PS. Have just been contemplating gorgeous costumes and stirring music in 'Coco & Igor'. Can modernism be made into a movie? Not sure, but Mrs Stravinsky looks ravishingly consumptive, the re-enactment of 'The Rite of Spring' is intriguing (and call me shallow, but it's easier to follow than Resnais's L’année dernière à Marienbad, which had wonderful little black dresses by Coco Chanel, and an almost incomprehensible plot; not that narrative simplicity was ever a preeminent feature of the French New Wave). Half a century after Chanel designed for Resnais, the French cinema industry has attempted to lure her ghost out of the shadows of a mysterious past, and into the arc lights. Anna Mouglalis gives a harder-edged version of Chanel than Audrey Tautou in 'Coco Avant Chanel', and an altogether different perspective on the much-disputed narrative of her love life. Naturally, I remain intrigued by the endless reflections of La Grande Mademoiselle...