Bright Young People

Author: D J Taylor
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 1409020630
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 354

Book Description
Bright Young People/ Making the most of our youth/ They talk in the Press of our social success/ But quite the reverse is the truth. [Noel Coward] The Bright Young People were one of the most extraordinary youth cults in British history. A pleasure-seeking band of bohemian party-givers and blue-blooded socialites, they romped through the 1920s gossip columns. Evelyn Waugh dramatised their antics in Vile Bodies and many of them, such as Anthony Powell, Nancy Mitford,Cecil Beaton and John Betjeman, later became household names. Their dealings with the media foreshadowed our modern celebrity culture and even today,we can detect their influence in our cultural life. But the quest for pleasure came at a price. Beneath the parties and practical jokes was a tormented generation, brought up in the shadow of war, whose relationships - with their parents and with each other - were prone to fracture. For many, their progress through the 'serious' Thirties, when the age of parties was over and another war hung over the horizon, led only to drink, drugs and disappointment, and in the case of Elizabeth Ponsonby - whose story forms a central strand of this book - to a family torn apart by tragedy. Moving from the Great War to the Blitz, Bright Young People is both a chronicle of England's 'lost generation' of the Jazz Age, and a panoramic portrait of a world that could accommodate both dizzying success and paralysing failure. Drawing on the writings and reminiscences of the Bright Young People themselves, D.J. Taylor has produced an enthralling social and cultural history, a definitive portrait of a vanished age.

Bright Young Things

Author: Anna Godbersen
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062023918
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 404

Book Description
The year is 1929. New York is ruled by the Bright Young Things: flappers and socialites seeking thrills and chasing dreams in the anything-goes era of the Roaring Twenties. Letty Larkspur and Cordelia Grey escaped their small Midwestern town for New York's glittering metropolis. All Letty wants is to see her name in lights, but she quickly discovers Manhattan is filled with pretty girls who will do anything to be a star. . . . Cordelia is searching for the father she's never known, a man as infamous for his wild parties as he is for his shadowy schemes. Overnight, she enters a world more thrilling and glamorous than she ever could have imagined—and more dangerous. It's a life anyone would kill for . . . and someone will. The only person Cordelia can trust is Astrid Donal, a flapper who seems to have it all: money, looks, and the love of Cordelia's brother, Charlie. But Astrid's perfect veneer hides a score of family secrets. Across the vast lawns of Long Island, in the illicit speakeasies of Manhattan, and on the blindingly lit stages of Broadway, the three girls' fortunes will rise and fall—together and apart. From the New York Times bestselling author of The Luxe comes an epic new series set in the dizzying last summer of the Jazz Age.

VILE BODIES

Author: Evelyn Waugh
Publisher: Alien Ebooks
ISBN: 1667623796
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 278

Book Description
Vile Bodies is a 1930 novel satirising the bright young things: decadent young London society after World War I. The title appears in a comment made by the novel’s narrator in reference to the characters’ party-driven lifestyle: “All that succession and repetition of massed humanity... Those vile bodies...”

Cecil Beaton's Bright Young Things

Author:
Publisher: National Portrait Gallery
ISBN: 9781855147720
Category : Photography
Languages : en
Pages : 280

Book Description
The stylish and extravagant world of the "Bright Young Things" of 1920s and '30s London, seen through the eye of renowned British photographer Cecil Beaton In 1920s and '30s Britain, Cecil Beaton used his camera and his larger-than-life personality to mingle with that flamboyant and rebellious group of artists, writers, socialites and partygoers who became known as the "Bright Young Things." Famously fictionalized by the likes of Evelyn Waugh (in Vile Bodies), Anthony Powell and Henry Green, these men and women cut a dramatic swathe through the epoch and embodied its roaring spirit. In a series of themed chapters, covering Beaton's first self-portraits and earliest sitters to his time at Cambridge and as principle society photographer for Vogue and Vanity Fair, over 50 leading figures who sat for Beaton are profiled and the dazzling parties, pageants and balls of the period are brought to life. Among this glittering cast are Beaton's socialite sisters Baba and Nancy Beaton, Stephen Tennant, Siegfried Sassoon, Evelyn Waugh and Daphne du Maurier. Beaton's photographs are complemented by a wide range of letters, drawings, book jackets and ephemera, and contextualised by artworks created by those in his circle, including Christopher Wood, Rex Whistler and Henry Lamb. Cecil Beaton (1904-80) is one of the most celebrated British portrait photographers of the 20th century and is renowned for his images of elegance, glamour and style. Beaton quickly developed a reputation for his striking and fantastic photographs, which culminated in his portraits of Queen Elizabeth in 1939. Also well known as a diarist, Beaton became a society fixture in his own right. His influence on portrait photography was profound and lives on today in the work of many contemporary photographers.

A Bright Young Thing

Author: Brianne Moore
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
ISBN: 1643855344
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 353

Book Description
In early 1930s England, a young firebrand finds herself on a fraught and dangerous road to independence. In 1931 England, Astra Davies defies all the conventions. Clever, witty, and determined, Astra smokes, drinks, plays a mean piano, and gallivants around London with her beloved Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. But Astra finds herself in a tight spot when her parents die suddenly, leaving her with a raft of debts. With few marketable skills and a closet full of family secrets, Astra has two choices: find a rich husband or make her own way. A fiercely driven woman like Astra is not about to cast her lot in with a man, especially out of desperation. And since the only man she fancies--Jeremy Harris, the Earl of Dunreaven--is as hard up as she is, her way forward is clear. But the path to independence is a bumpy one fraught with hazards and heartbreaking choices. A blackmailing socialite threatens to derail Astra's reputation. A brainless business partner just might drive her even further into debt. And a series of bruising scandals dogs her every step of the way. From the bustle of London to the country estates of the aristocracy, Astra embarks on a journey that tests her brains, wit, and mettle as never before. But one way or another, Astra Davies is dead set on proving she's no ordinary Bright Young Thing.

Bright Young Things London

Author: Brooke De Ocampo
Publisher: Editions Assouline
ISBN: 9782843233371
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 192

Book Description
Brooke de Ocampo invites us back into the homes of Bright Young Things, only this time she opens the doors to London's most stylish and enterprising trend-setters. Bright Young Things London is the highly anticipated follow-up to the successful New York edition. This lush, elegant book is an enthralling journey through the homes of the most envied and emulated residents of one of the world's most exciting cities. Step inside the fabulous lives of 40 architects, artists, designers, and writers to discover why they embody everything London is known for: wit, cutting-edge style, and glamour. Along with elegant photographs by Vanity Fair photographer Jonathan Becker are intimate anecdotes written by the people who know these bright young things best: Claus von Bulow writes about his daughter Cosima; Ewan and Eve MacGregor rave about the home David Adjaye designed for them; Michael Kors fawns over his muse, Kim Hersov; and Paul Smith writes about Robert Violette. Bright Young Things London captures the spirit of the city while paying tribute to its international influences. It is just as addictive in London as it was in New York.

Bright Young Things

Author: Scarlett Thomas
Publisher: Canongate Books
ISBN: 0857863819
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 341

Book Description
Bright Young Things wanted for Big Project.' They're in the prime of their lives but our bright young things are all burnt out. Six sparky twenty-somethings just out of university and working dead-end jobs, they are all bored to tears with their lives and looking for a way out. When a mysterious job is advertised in the newspaper, they all apply. What they least expect is to find themselves prisoners on a deserted island. There's food in the fridge and they have a bedroom each, but there's no telephone, no television, and no way to escape.

Bright Young Dead

Author: Jessica Fellowes
Publisher: Minotaur Books
ISBN: 1250170818
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 401

Book Description
"True and glorious indulgence. A dazzling example of a golden age mystery." —Daisy Goodwin, author of Victoria and The American Heiress on The Mitford Murders Set amid the legendary Mitford household, Bright Young Dead is the second in the thrilling, Golden Age-style Mitford Murders series by Jessica Fellowes, author of the New York Times bestselling Downton Abbey books. Meet the Bright Young Things, the rabble-rousing hedonists of the 1920s whose treasure hunts were a media obsession. One such game takes place at the 18th birthday party of Pamela Mitford, but ends in tragedy as cruel, charismatic Adrian Curtis is pushed to his death from the church neighbouring the Mitford home. The police quickly identify the killer as a maid, Dulcie. But Louisa Cannon, chaperone to the Mitford girls and a former criminal herself, believes Dulcie to be innocent, and sets out to clear the girl's name . . . all while the real killer may only be steps away.

Bright Young Things

Author: Alison Maloney
Publisher: Clarkson Potter
ISBN: 0385345259
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 130

Book Description
An illustrated lifestyle guide to the fashion, parties and notorious personalities of the 1920s celebrates everything from jazz and all-night dance halls to Prohibition cocktails and flappers, in a volume complemented by art deco illustrations and a foil-stamped case. By the author of the best-selling Strictly Come Dancing Annual 2008. 15,000 first printing.

Too Bright to See

Author: Kyle Lukoff
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 059311115X
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 194

Book Description
A Newbery Honor Book • Winner of the Stonewall Book Award • A National Book Award Finalist "A gentle, glowing wonder, full of love and understanding." –The New York Times Book Review Cover may vary. It's the summer before middle school and eleven-year-old Bug's best friend Moira has decided the two of them need to use the next few months to prepare. For Moira, this means figuring out the right clothes to wear, learning how to put on makeup, and deciding which boys are cuter in their yearbook photos than in real life. But none of this is all that appealing to Bug, who doesn't particularly want to spend more time trying to understand how to be a girl. Besides, there's something more important to worry about: A ghost is haunting Bug's eerie old house in rural Vermont...and maybe haunting Bug in particular. As Bug begins to untangle the mystery of who this ghost is and what they're trying to say, an altogether different truth comes to light--Bug is transgender.