Chanel Bonfire: A Memoir

In her stunning memoir, Wendy Lawless tells the often heartbreaking tale of her unconventional upbringing with an unstable alcoholic and suicidal mothera real-life Holly Golightly turned Mommie Dearestand the uncommon sense of resilience that allowed her to rise above it all. Dont forget to look out for Wendys follow-up memoir, Heart of Glass, coming March 2016 from Gallery Books.

Georgann Rea didnt bake cookies or go to PTA meetings; she wore a mink coat and always had a lit Dunhill plugged into her cigarette holder. Shed slept with too many men and a few women, and she didnt like dogs or children. Georgann possessed the icy beauty of a Hitchcock heroine with the cold heart to match.

From living at the Dakota in 1960s Manhattan to Londons swinging town houses and beyond, Wendy Lawless and her younger sister navigated day-to-day life as their unstable and fabulously neglectful mother, Georgann, chased her delusions, suffered dramatic breakdowns, and survived suicide attempts. With clear-eyed grace and flashing wit, Lawless portrays the highs and lows of her unhinged upbringingand how she survived her mothers endlessly destructive search for glamour and fulfillmentin a searing memoir that reads like a novel (Anne Korkeakivi, An Unexpected Guest).