Beautiful People - Softcover

‘Simon Doonan’s life is a tawdry and hilarious romp.’ Rupert Everett.

‘When I read this book I laughed and cried. For anyone who grew up in the fifties and sixties it feels like all our lives.’ Jon Plowman, Executive Producer, The Office, Ab Fab, Little Britain.

‘At last: a childhood memoir that’s about coming to terms with fabulousness rather than incest or binge drinking. Who knew that Simon could write about growing up in a corner of England with as much wit, charm, and dead-on smarts as he brings to his chronicles of the luxe life in Manhattan?’ Graydon Carter, Editor of Vanity Fair.

‘Beautiful People is wickedly funny. Simon Doonan has an ear and an eye for sublimely bizarre details that will make readers laugh out loud.’ Candace Bushnell, author of Sex and The City.

‘Simon is a male Lucille Ball.’ Donna Karen.

‘Did you ever look at someone and wonder how they got the way they are? 'Beautiful People totally answers the question in Doonan's case. Read it - and weep! His tale of clawing his way out of the suburban suffocation of Reading to the manicured marvels of Manhattan is hilarious.’
Hilary Alexander, The Daily Telegraph

“Beautiful People is the very best kind of memoir: a cheer memoir” - Susie Boyt, Financial Times.

A charming and funny memoir of escaping a bonkers family and following your dreams

Simon Doonan's childhood was a curious mix of small town boredom and bright light city dreams. Growing up in a working class area of Reading with the mad-cap Doonan clan - Mother Betty, Father Terry, blind Aunt Phyllis, grandmother Narg and Grandfather D.C. - he yearned to get out and find the Beautiful People whom he imagined lived fabulous lives of glitz and glamour.

This is the charming and funny story of how Simon eventually finds a way out and escapes to London with best friend Biddie Biddlecombe. Along the way they stumble upon punks, drunks, ladies of the night, the long arm of the law and all sorts of camps, vamps and outrageous scamps.

But does he ever find the Beautiful People? Or could they be the ones he left behind...?