From Joan Didion to Roman Polanski, Audrey Hepburn to Harrison Ford, novelist Susanna Moore encountered some of the most distinguished and most infamous players in 1970s Los Angeles.
At seventeen, Susanna Moore left her home in Hawaii, with no money, no belongings and no prospects. But in Philadelphia, an unexpected gift of four trunks of beautiful clothes allowed her to assume the first of many disguises.
Working at Bergdorf’s, she refines her observational instincts. Modelling at a boat trade show, she dresses as ‘Miss Aluminium’, her arms chafed by silver sequins. Living in 1960s Los Angeles, she meets Joan Didion and Audrey Hepburn, and works as a script reader for Warren Beatty and Jack Nicholson, with whom she has a relationship.
In this conversation with journalist and broadcaster Hannah MacInnes, Susanna will delve beneath the glittering fairytale surface lies the story of a girl’s insatiable hunger to learn. She’ll give us a sardonic, often humorous portrait of Hollywood in the seventies and of a young woman’s hard-won arrival at selfhood.
Praise for Susanna Moore:
‘An outstanding memoir… A novelist best known for her extraordinary 1995 erotic thriller In the Cut, Moore has now written an extraordinary memoir… The descriptive writing is a joy.’ THE SUNDAY TIMES
‘Moore’s account of her time as a model and bit-part actress in Hollywood is peppered with famous names, from Audrey Hepburn and Harrison Ford to Warren Beatty and Roman Polanski. But this riveting book isn’t just about being on the fringes of celebrity: it’s a compellingly dark tale of a young woman navigating her way through a sea full of sharks … This is a totally gripping and tremendously entertaining memoir.’ DAILY MAIL
‘Miss Aluminium, is a triumphant, inspiring account of how to find your true self in the most unlikely of settings’ RED magazine
‘Excellent . . . One gets the sense that what is revealed has been chosen appraisingly, not out of coyness but, rather, out of something resembling an architect’s appreciation of a structure’s good bones. Moore’s writing has the slightly mysterious sense of detachment that she adopted when building her persona, many years ago, though paradoxically this is what makes her revelations, when they come, more piercing.’ THE NEW YORKER
This event takes place at 6:30pm British Summer Time.
Books will be shipped within two weeks after the event. If we experience any delay in getting your copy to you, we will contact you by email to let you know. Thank you for supporting a local London business, Primrose Hill Books.
