I started reading this but whether it was the format or just the content but I couldn't get into it at all. I found it quite flat, so didn't bother carrying on with it.

As a journalist I reviewed this for a print publication back in 2017 and really enjoyed it.

At the time I didn't realise I also had to post a review on here - apologies!

I really struggled with this. I think the subject matter just wasn't appealing enough to hold me attention.

Fascinating Account..
A fascinating account of eight years at Vanity Fair in the heady position of editor in chief. A very personal account but also of interest as a cultural account of the times. With a narrative that maintains the reader’s attention, snippets and inside stories and laced throughout with humorous asides.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an advance copy of this book. This was an excellent read.
Thoroughly recommended

The Vanity Fair Diaries is, at once, a deeply personal account of a period of time as well as a cultural document more fascinating than any history book you may read.

In her fascinating diaries, Tina Brown gives the reader a sneak-peak into the world of celebrity and news journalism. We see the cutthroat attitude towards women in the media and the battle that pioneering writers took on to make sure that they held their place in a male dominated environment.

Beyond that, we have Brown’s personal life held on display for us to see the worlds as they run parallel. What is interesting to think about is whether or not Tina Brown did use total disclosure when sharing her diaries with the world. If not, imagine the saucy secrets those books still hold.

The Vanity Fair Diaries 1983 – 1992 by Tina Brown is available now.

For more information regarding Tina Brown (@TinaBrownLM) please visit her Twitter page.

For more information regarding Orion (@rionbooks) please visit www.orionbooks.co.uk.

Loved this. I rarely read non fiction but when I do, I want to have my Kindle in one hand and my phone in the other, feeling compelled to Google everything that piques my interest . Tina Brown's tales of eighties NYC and the literary legends which populated her world was enough to lead me down wiki-rabbitholes of Warhol, Murdoch and more. Fun, detailed (it's LONG!) and with just the right balance between bitchiness and reverence. Fans of 'behind the scenes' gossip as well as those with an interest in journalism will enjoy.

I am very appreciative of this ARC, thank you to NetGalley, Orion, and the author.
I’m afraid I couldn’t finish this book, I found it incredibly repetitive and a frankly quite self-involved.
It seemed to be a never ending list of the same events, with the same people, and the same conversations.
I can count on one hand the number of books that I have abandoned, so was really pushed to my limit here.
Don’t waste your time on this one.

. . . . .

I really enjoyed this book though took ages to get to it, sorry. Full review is available on my blog

https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/2018/12/27/book-review-tina-brown-the-vanity-fair-diaries/

Absolutely loved this. Full of a rich history in magazine publishing as well as the more famous moments that came out of the 1983-1992 era at Vanity Fair, There's a real flare for memory here, showing the inside of the New York and London social scenes and making it all seem so readable and accessible to the ordinary person who lives entirely outside this world. Tina Brown has led a thoroughly interesting life and the barbed comments and sass built into the writing are really great, filling the already glittering anecdotes with a proper vibe of personality.

This wasn't for me, mainly because I didn't have enough knowledge of the celebrities and well-known figures the author discusses to get much out if the anecdotes. Had I known more about the fashion industry I think I'd have gotten more out of it. Not a bad book, just not for me.

I grabbed The Vanity Fair Diaries from NetGalley when it was on read now almost a year ago but somehow I haven’t got around to reading it until now. I picked it up for non-fiction November last week and it was an enjoyable read.

The book is Tina Brown’s personal diaries from 1983 when she got the job as editor of Vanity Fair magazine until she moved on in 1992.

There are parts of this book that I really enjoyed. I loved finding out more about what it’s like to edit a magazine and how difficult it can be getting the right cover image that represents the pieces inside the magazine.

Tina Brown movingly captures what it must have been like living in New York in the 1980s at the height of the AIDS crisis. She doesn’t write at length about it but the frequent mentions of people she knows who have been diagnosed, or who have died is really shocking. I can’t imagine what it must have been like to have lost so many people to one disease and in such a short amount of time.

The references to Donald Trump made for rueful reading, to know how he was thought of at various points during the 80s and now he’s president of the United States makes for interesting reading. There are other political figures referenced within the book that also make for interesting asides.

I also really enjoyed finding out more about how Brown juggled her work and her home life after she had her first child. She genuinely struggled to find balance and you can see her being pulled in two directions during her son’s early years. There is real honesty in these moments and it gave some balance to a book that is heavy on the celebrities and the gossip.

I think where I struggled a little with my enjoyment of the book is that, particularly in the earlier parts of the diary, I didn’t know who half of the people mentioned were. I kept putting the book down to look them up online. Once the book got to the later 80s and early 90s it was more my era and I knew who most of the people were and it became a much more fascinating read. This is down to my age though and not a fault of the book.

Overall I found this a really interesting and enjoyable book to dip in and out of and I do recommend it.

I actually haven’t read a memoir in a while and I forgot how refreshing it can be, there is something very intriguing about delving into someone else’s world, I find that especially true when it’s on a topic that I don’t know a lot about. I have heard of Vanity Fair, of course, but I’ve never picked one up before and didn’t really know anything of its history or that of the author either.

Luckily there is somewhat of a working background for both the author and the magazine before diving into the main crux of the diary, it set the scene perfectly and was a bit like the calm before the storm. It gave me the time to get in the right frame of mind for reading before it launched into Tina Brown’s fast-paced world.

What I liked about this format is that you never knew what to expect, some of the entries could be long or it would be a series of short and snappy entries, it also jumped from one thing to the next and then back again. It gives a great impression of what it would have been like working in that type of atmosphere, constantly on the go and having to deal with all things at once.

There were only a few occasions where this lagged for me, sometimes the endless lunches when not very much is happening got to me a little, but usually there would eventually be some anecdote that I would find amusing and then we would be back in the swing of the magazine once again and the pace was back to its breakneck setting.

Some of the people she mentions; at the various lunches and dinners; I have no clue about and feel like maybe I missed out on the glamour of her knowing these people, but as I just mentioned if there was a funny story that accompanied them then I didn’t mind that I didn’t know who they were. I was enamoured with hearing about the photographers and some of the artists and writers though, it’s a different perspective than what I’ve read before so that was enlightening.

I’m not a big gossiper and I’m not all that interested in celebrity culture but I have to say I liked the social commentary on some of the people, even if I didn’t know who they were, I like that she doesn’t hold back her opinion. I know from reading that she is a shrewd editor and will know what best to put in and take out but I’d like to think that it wasn’t too carefully curated. There are a lot of mentions of people being annoyed that she had printed stories about them that weren’t favourable, so I’m glad that she didn’t seem like she was sugar coating her thoughts even about people who she was close to.

Obviously the main draw of this book is because it is a very iconic magazine and you know that there are going to be a lot of influential people mentioned and that there are things revealed that you maybe haven’t heard of before. However, I much preferred reading about the struggles of each issue, the fight for the good story and the difficulties of working under someone who seemed to fire a new person every day or moved people around the company like chess pieces.

There was a personal element as well, there is a lot of commentary on the life/work divide, and a lot of insight into her family life, which I found fascinating. I mean this is something that is still very relevant, how can you be successful at work and a mother without letting things slip or without being persecuted for it. It was good to get to see the changes that having a family created but also meant that I could relate a bit more to her because I am definitely a complete outsider to the life of the rich and famous.

I found there was a difference from when she was talking about her work to when she was discussing her children and family, and it was nice to have that variety of ‘voice’. Most of the stories involving her son I thought were very amusing, whenever she told us the things he had said I always ended up smiling, it’s just the way that kids can come out with the most random but relevant things to say, with the timing of a seasoned comedian.

I’m glad that we got to find out what happened to her after Vanity Fair and where some of the other main names in the book ended up. It did feel like you were taken along on the journey and it wouldn’t have felt right if I hadn’t found out what happened to them.

One thing that did pop into my head when I was reading was that it would have been nice to see some of the images that were being discussed in the book, I got the impression that if it were a printed book that I would maybe see some related pictures and I feel like this would have added to my experience.

Since it was an arc that I was reading there were only a few at the end of her immediate family, but I did swing by a bookshop and had a look at the physical copy and there was a section that had pictures of some of the more iconic covers and the team. I’m not sure if the proper electronic version does have these or not but I would recommend getting the paperback or seeking it out so that you can have a look.

The Vanity Fair Diaries was definitely a pleasant surprise, even if you don’t have any background knowledge it has a lot of very interesting content that draws you in and a pace as fast as the city it’s based in.

Moderately interesting but altogether rather gossipy. One can't help but admire Tina Brown for her single-mindedness and success but her diaries turned out to be a record of name-dropping.

Would not recommend it.

The Vanity Fair Diaries is a fascinating look into the life of Tina Brown, as she rose up through the ranks of the fashion glossies in the 80s and 90s. Unfortunately most of the references in regards to people were lost on me, and I found myself ‘googling’ many of the people she talks about. An interesting read nonetheless.

I have enjoyed dipping into this book over the past few months. It is well written and easy to read, which is hardly surprising, given the author's background and experience. It would make a good present for someone interested in the social history of a fairly exclusive set of people living in - and visiting - late twentieth century USA.

Many thanks to the publishers and to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of "The Vanity Fair Diaries" in exchange for this honest review.

Due to a hiatus, I was unable to read and review this in an appropriate time frame and so will have to DNF it for now. Will hope to come back to it at a later date as I am still slightly intrigued.

The first quarter was so repetitively boring that I nearly gave up. Nothing but very basic accounts of dinner parties with people I'd mostly not heard of. The book then improved in that the content expanded somewhat, the machinations of the publishing world were interesting until they too became repetitive. There's no denying Tina Brown's tenacity and work ethic, but the media world she describes sounds horrendous, more about dinner parties and feuds than actual editorial process. As an editor, I'm surprised she just reproduced her diaries. The content would have worked much better as a (much shorter) memoir. If it hadn't been so long I would have given it three stars, as there were some interesting parts.

A simply fabulous book. Fabulous! Tina Brown doesn't hold back when it comes to remembering the excesses and failures of 1980s New York. Running Vanity Fair and making it a huge success, she takes no prisoners as she comes across legendary characters like Steve Rubell and Ian Shrager, as well as Annie Liebowitz, Anna Wintour and Donald Trump, to name but a few. There are tonnes of insider insights, lots of bitchy confrontations and gossipy asides, but these are mixed in with Tina falling in love and having children, which brings a very human touch to everything. The book is written at a fast pace and the reader really starts to feel that she is living in this fabulous world, too. Incredible book.