In "Chanel: An Intimate Life" acclaimed biographer Lisa Chaney tells the controversial story
of the fashion icon who starred in her tumultuous era. Coco Chanel was many things to many
people. Raised in emotional and financial poverty she became one of the defining figures of
the twentieth century. She was mistress to aristocrats artists and spies. She broke rules of
style and decorum seducing both men and women yet in her work expected the highest standards.
She took a 'plaything' and turned it into a global industry which defined the modern woman.
Filled with new insights and thrilling discoveries Lisa Chaney's "Chanel" provides the most
defining and provocative portrait yet. "Chaney's research is laudable uncovering fresh details
of Chanel's well-trodden rag trade to riches story". ("Evening Standard"). "An unflinching
examination of the historically inscrutable designer". ("Vogue"). Lisa Chaney has lectured and
tutored in the history of art and literature made TV and radio broadcasts on the history of
culture and reviewed and written for journals and newspapers including "The Sunday Times"
the "Spectator" and the "Guardian". She is the author of two previous biographies: "Elizabeth
David" and "Hide-and-Seek With Angels: The Life of J.M. Barrie".
