
The Glossy Years
Magazines, Museums and Selective Memoirs
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $18.88
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Nicholas Coleridge
About this listen
Brought to you by Penguin.
Over his 30-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.
©2019 Nicholas Coleridge (P)2019 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
-
Jackie
- By: J. Randy Taraborrelli
- Narrated by: Jane Oppenheimer
- Length: 16 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Based on hundreds of interviews with friends, family, and lovers over a thirty-year period—as well as previously unreleased material from the JFK Library—Kennedy historian J. Randy Taraborrelli paints an unforgettable new portrait of a woman whose flaws and contradictions only serve to make her even more iconic. “I have three lives,” Jackie told a former lover, “public, private and secret.” In this revealing biography, listeners will become intimately familiar with all three.
-
-
Very thorough!
- By LaurieB. on 06-26-24
-
Dilettante
- True Tales of Excess, Triumph, and Disaster
- By: Dana Brown
- Narrated by: Dana Brown
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dana Brown was a 21-year-old college dropout playing in punk bands and partying his way through downtown New York’s early-'90s milieu when he first encountered Graydon Carter, the legendary editor of Vanity Fair. After the two had a handful of brief interactions (mostly with Brown in the role of cater waiter at Carter’s famous cultural salons he hosted at his home), Carter saw what he believed to be Brown’s untapped potential, and on a whim, hired him as his assistant
-
-
spoiled brat
- By mc on 10-12-22
By: Dana Brown
-
The Palace Papers
- Inside the House of Windsor - the Truth and the Turmoil
- By: Tina Brown
- Narrated by: Tina Brown
- Length: 18 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tina Brown has been observing and chronicling the British monarchy for three decades, and her sweeping account is full of powerful revelations, newly reported details, and searing insight gleaned from remarkable access to royal insiders. Stylish, witty, and erudite, The Palace Papers will irrevocably change how the world perceives and understands the royal family.
-
-
Audible narration is dreadful
- By M M. on 05-03-22
By: Tina Brown
-
Unscripted
- The Epic Battle for a Media Empire and the Redstone Family Legacy
- By: James B. Stewart, Rachel Abrams
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2016, the fate of Paramount Global’s entertainment empire hung precariously in the balance. Its founder and head, ninety-three-year-old Sumner M. Redstone, was facing a very public lawsuit brought by a former romantic companion, Manuela Herzer, which placed Sumner’s deteriorating health and questionable judgment under a harsh light.
-
-
I could t wait for it to end
- By Abbie L. Smith on 03-01-23
By: James B. Stewart, and others
-
Revenge
- Meghan, Harry, and the War Between the Windsors
- By: Tom Bower
- Narrated by: Andrew Wincott
- Length: 16 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After a childhood spent on Hollywood film sets, Meghan Markle fought hard for stardom. But even when she landed her breakthrough role on Suits, her dream of worldwide celebrity remained elusive until she met the man who would change her life—Prince Harry. Their whirlwind romance culminated with Meghan’s ultimate fairy tale ending: their 2018 wedding at Windsor Castle. Finally, the world was her stage. It seemed that the dizzying success of the wedding between the new Duke and Duchess of Sussex marked the beginning of a fresh era for the British Royal Family.
-
-
THE Truth, Not “HER Truth”
- By Trump16 on 09-05-22
By: Tom Bower
-
Odd Boy Out
- By: Gyles Brandreth
- Narrated by: Gyles Brandreth
- Length: 14 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There are few people Gyles Brandreth doesn't know or hasn't met. Now a grandparent, he traces his steps back to being a three-year-old tearing around 1950s London on his tricycle, to boarding school where he had an appendix removed simply to get out of football, to Bedales, where he met Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, to balancing his growing love of theatre with his love for educating, the 'woolly jumper years', the stint as an MP, the years of close friendship with the queen, to becoming a septuagenarian Twitter star and stalwart fixture in British entertainment.
-
-
An enjoyable evening with Gyles
- By vivian smith on 10-08-24
By: Gyles Brandreth
-
Jackie
- By: J. Randy Taraborrelli
- Narrated by: Jane Oppenheimer
- Length: 16 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Based on hundreds of interviews with friends, family, and lovers over a thirty-year period—as well as previously unreleased material from the JFK Library—Kennedy historian J. Randy Taraborrelli paints an unforgettable new portrait of a woman whose flaws and contradictions only serve to make her even more iconic. “I have three lives,” Jackie told a former lover, “public, private and secret.” In this revealing biography, listeners will become intimately familiar with all three.
-
-
Very thorough!
- By LaurieB. on 06-26-24
-
Dilettante
- True Tales of Excess, Triumph, and Disaster
- By: Dana Brown
- Narrated by: Dana Brown
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dana Brown was a 21-year-old college dropout playing in punk bands and partying his way through downtown New York’s early-'90s milieu when he first encountered Graydon Carter, the legendary editor of Vanity Fair. After the two had a handful of brief interactions (mostly with Brown in the role of cater waiter at Carter’s famous cultural salons he hosted at his home), Carter saw what he believed to be Brown’s untapped potential, and on a whim, hired him as his assistant
-
-
spoiled brat
- By mc on 10-12-22
By: Dana Brown
-
The Palace Papers
- Inside the House of Windsor - the Truth and the Turmoil
- By: Tina Brown
- Narrated by: Tina Brown
- Length: 18 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tina Brown has been observing and chronicling the British monarchy for three decades, and her sweeping account is full of powerful revelations, newly reported details, and searing insight gleaned from remarkable access to royal insiders. Stylish, witty, and erudite, The Palace Papers will irrevocably change how the world perceives and understands the royal family.
-
-
Audible narration is dreadful
- By M M. on 05-03-22
By: Tina Brown
-
Unscripted
- The Epic Battle for a Media Empire and the Redstone Family Legacy
- By: James B. Stewart, Rachel Abrams
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2016, the fate of Paramount Global’s entertainment empire hung precariously in the balance. Its founder and head, ninety-three-year-old Sumner M. Redstone, was facing a very public lawsuit brought by a former romantic companion, Manuela Herzer, which placed Sumner’s deteriorating health and questionable judgment under a harsh light.
-
-
I could t wait for it to end
- By Abbie L. Smith on 03-01-23
By: James B. Stewart, and others
-
Revenge
- Meghan, Harry, and the War Between the Windsors
- By: Tom Bower
- Narrated by: Andrew Wincott
- Length: 16 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
After a childhood spent on Hollywood film sets, Meghan Markle fought hard for stardom. But even when she landed her breakthrough role on Suits, her dream of worldwide celebrity remained elusive until she met the man who would change her life—Prince Harry. Their whirlwind romance culminated with Meghan’s ultimate fairy tale ending: their 2018 wedding at Windsor Castle. Finally, the world was her stage. It seemed that the dizzying success of the wedding between the new Duke and Duchess of Sussex marked the beginning of a fresh era for the British Royal Family.
-
-
THE Truth, Not “HER Truth”
- By Trump16 on 09-05-22
By: Tom Bower
-
Odd Boy Out
- By: Gyles Brandreth
- Narrated by: Gyles Brandreth
- Length: 14 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
There are few people Gyles Brandreth doesn't know or hasn't met. Now a grandparent, he traces his steps back to being a three-year-old tearing around 1950s London on his tricycle, to boarding school where he had an appendix removed simply to get out of football, to Bedales, where he met Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, to balancing his growing love of theatre with his love for educating, the 'woolly jumper years', the stint as an MP, the years of close friendship with the queen, to becoming a septuagenarian Twitter star and stalwart fixture in British entertainment.
-
-
An enjoyable evening with Gyles
- By vivian smith on 10-08-24
By: Gyles Brandreth
-
Anna
- The Biography
- By: Amy Odell
- Narrated by: Imogen Church
- Length: 15 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a child, Anna Wintour was a tomboy with no apparent interest in clothing but, seduced by the miniskirts and bob haircuts of swinging 1960s London, she grew into a fashion-obsessed teenager. Her father, an influential newspaper editor, loomed large in her life, and once he decided she should become editor-in-chief of Vogue, she never looked back.
-
-
WONDERFUL, SPLENDID, I LOVED IT!!
- By Liz Jardine on 05-13-22
By: Amy Odell
-
The Vanity Fair Diaries
- 1983-1992
- By: Tina Brown
- Narrated by: Tina Brown
- Length: 16 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Vanity Fair Diaries is the story of an Englishwoman barely out of her twenties who arrives in New York City with a dream. Summoned from London in hopes that she can save Condé Nast's troubled new flagship Vanity Fair, Tina Brown is immediately plunged into the maelstrom of the competitive New York media world and the backstabbing rivalries at the court of the planet's slickest, most glamour-focused magazine company. She survives the politics, the intrigue, and the attempts to derail her by a simple stratagem.
-
-
There is something about the Brits...
- By Sylvia on 12-11-17
By: Tina Brown
-
The Kingdom of Prep
- The Inside Story of the Rise and (Near) Fall of J.Crew
- By: Maggie Bullock
- Narrated by: Cheryl Smith
- Length: 13 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Once upon a time, a no-frills J.Crew rollneck sweater held an almost mystical power—or at least it felt that way. The story of J.Crew is the story of the original “lifestyle brand,” whose evolution charts a sea change in the way we dress, the way we shop, and who we aspire to be over the past four decades—all told through iconic clothes and the most riveting characters imaginable.
-
-
FANtastic Read!
- By Hello World on 08-16-23
By: Maggie Bullock
-
Like a Rolling Stone
- A Memoir
- By: Jann S. Wenner
- Narrated by: Dennis Boutsikaris, Jann S. Wenner
- Length: 17 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rolling Stone founder, co-editor, and publisher Jann Wenner's deeply personal memoir vividly describes and brings you inside the music, the politics, and the lifestyle of a generation, an epoch of cultural change that swept America and beyond. The age of rock and roll in an era of consequence, what will be considered one of the great watersheds in modern history. Wenner writes with the clarity of a journalist and an essayist. He takes us into the life and work of Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Mick Jagger, Bono, and Bruce Springsteen, to name a few.
-
-
Name-dropping on steroids
- By Tim on 09-19-22
By: Jann S. Wenner
-
Capote's Women
- A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era
- By: Laurence Leamer
- Narrated by: Carrington MacDuffie
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
New York Times bestselling author Laurence Leamer reveals the complex web of relationships and scandalous true stories behind Truman Capote's never-published final novel, Answered Prayers—the dark secrets, tragic glamour, and Capote's ultimate betrayal of the group of female friends he called his "swans."
-
-
You need to know a bit about the players
- By Etoile NEOhio on 12-30-21
By: Laurence Leamer
-
Lady in Waiting
- My Extraordinary Life in the Shadow of the Crown
- By: Anne Glenconner
- Narrated by: Anne Glenconner
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Anne Glenconner has been at the center of the royal circle from childhood, when she met and befriended the future Queen Elizabeth II and her sister, the Princess Margaret. Though the firstborn child of the fifth Earl of Leicester, who controlled one of the largest estates in England, as a daughter she was deemed "the greatest disappointment" and unable to inherit. Since then she has needed all her resilience to survive court life with her sense of humor intact.
-
-
Horrible Reading
- By Teddy hall on 03-27-20
By: Anne Glenconner
-
The Chiffon Trenches
- A Memoir
- By: André Leon Talley
- Narrated by: André Leon Talley
- Length: 9 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
During André Leon Talley’s first magazine job, alongside Andy Warhol at Interview, a fateful meeting with Karl Lagerfeld began a decades-long friendship with the enigmatic, often caustic designer. Propelled into the upper echelons by his knowledge and adoration of fashion, André moved to Paris as bureau chief of John Fairchild’s Women’s Wear Daily, befriending fashion's most important designers (Halston, Yves Saint Laurent, Oscar de la Renta). But as André made friends, he also made enemies.
-
-
Another case of author's narration not working.
- By CB on 05-21-20
-
The House of Gucci
- A True Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed
- By: Sara Gay Forden
- Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi, Sara Gay Forden
- Length: 16 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On the morning of March 27, 1995, four quick shots cracked through Milan’s elegant streets. Maurizio Gucci, heir to the fabulous fashion dynasty, had been ambushed, slain on the steps to his office by an unknown gunman. Two years later, Milan’s chief of police entered the sumptuous palazzo of Maurizio’s ex-wife, Patrizia Reggiani - nicknamed “the Black Widow” by the press - and arrested her for the murder. Did Patrizia kill her ex-husband because his spending was wildly out of control? Or is it possible Patrizia didn’t do it at all?
-
-
Just read the cliff notes or wait for the movie.
- By Sunny White on 04-10-21
By: Sara Gay Forden
-
Between the Stops
- The View of My Life from the Top of the Number 12 Bus
- By: Sandi Toksvig
- Narrated by: Sandi Toksvig
- Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
'Between the Stops is a sort of a memoir, my sort. It's about a bus trip really, because it's my view from the Number 12 bus (mostly top deck, the seat at the front on the right), a double-decker that plies its way from Dulwich, in South East London, where I was living, to where I sometimes work - at the BBC, in the heart of the capital. It's not a sensible way to write a memoir at all, probably, but it's the way things pop into your head as you travel, so it's my way'.
-
-
Funny, interesting and enlightening. A must listen.
- By Steve Killingback on 01-05-20
By: Sandi Toksvig
-
Girl, Woman, Other
- By: Bernardine Evaristo
- Narrated by: Anna-Maria Nabirye
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From one of Britain's most celebrated writers of color, Girl, Woman, Other is a magnificent portrayal of the intersections of identity and a moving and hopeful story of an interconnected group of black British women. Winner of the 2019 Booker Prize and short-listed for the Gordon Burn Prize, Girl, Woman, Other paints a vivid portrait of the state of post-Brexit Britain, as well as looking back to the legacy of Britain's colonial history in Africa and the Caribbean.
-
-
smart, compassionate, confronting and enjoyable
- By Kelly on 12-20-19
-
Terry Pratchett: A Life with Footnotes
- The Official Biography
- By: Rob Wilkins
- Narrated by: Rob Wilkins
- Length: 16 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At six years old, Terry was told by his headteacher that he would never amount to anything. He spent the rest of his life proving that teacher wrong. At 66, Terry had lived a life full of achievements: becoming one of the UK's best-selling writers, winning the Carnegie Medal and being awarded a knighthood for services to literature. Following his untimely death from Alzheimer's disease, the mantle of completing Terry's memoir was passed to Rob Wilkins, his former assistant, friend and now head of the author's literary estate.
-
-
The honesty of someone who knew and loved him well
- By Amanda Richards on 10-05-22
By: Rob Wilkins
-
This Much Is True
- By: Miriam Margolyes
- Narrated by: Miriam Margolyes
- Length: 15 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Award-winning actor, creator of a myriad of memorable characters from Lady Whiteadder to Professor Sprout, Miriam Margolyes is a national treasure. Now, at last, at the age of 80, she has finally decided to tell her extraordinary life story. And it's far richer and stranger than any part she's played.
-
-
Simply Brilliant
- By Stuart Huddart on 09-21-21
By: Miriam Margolyes
What listeners say about The Glossy Years
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- bubbles
- 09-20-22
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.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jenny Jenkins
- 08-28-21
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.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- AminaRuhle
- 10-05-20
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.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful