The Following Girls (33 page)

‘She writes with such energy and panache that I found myself screaming with laughter  . . . Her characters are a delight [and] she gets the period beautifully right, so that one is all the time aware of the serious intent behind all the gruesome fun’ Barbara Trapido

‘Deliciously dark’
Sunday Express

‘A hilarious mix of first love and formaldehyde’ Daisy Goodwin

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A Vision of Loveliness

Jane James knows that she must have been born to better things than a dingy bedroom in her Aunt Doreen’s house in Norbury and a job as junior saleslady in a cashmere shop in Piccadilly. But then a chance encounter leads her to Suzy St John, a girl-about-town with the glamour and irresistible allure that Jane has rehearsed for so long. Suzy takes Jane under her wing, and Jane becomes Janey, a near carbon-copy of her new best friend who catwalks confidently through a seedy world of part-time modelling and full-time man-trapping. But Jane finds that she can never quite drown out the nagging doubt that there might be more to life than a mutation mink jacket or an engagement ring . . .

‘I loved this book. It wonderfully evokes the essence of the 1960s’ Joan Collins

‘A dark comedy that reveals the seedy underbelly of London in the 1960s . . . A winning debut that's rich with period detail and packs a punch’
Marie Claire

‘Biting social satire, drenched in extravagant shoes, jewellery and clothes’
Observer

‘Louise Levne is a zesty storyteller and a master of the needle-sharp one-liner’
Daily Telegraph

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First published in Great Britain 2014

This electronic edition published in 2014 by Bloomsbury Publishing plc

Copyright © 2014 by Louise Levene

The moral right of the author has been asserted

Every reasonable effort has been made to trace copyright holders of material reproduced in this book, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publishers would be glad to hear from them

Epigraph
and
extract
from
Nineteen Eighty Four
by George Orwell (Martin Secker & Warburg, 1949, Penguin Books 1954, 1989, 2000). Copyright 1949 by Eric Blair. This edition copyright © the Estate of the late Sonia Brownell Orwell, 1987.
Introduction © copyright Ben Pimlott, 1989. Notes on the Text © copyright Peter Davidson, 1989. Reproduced by permission of Penguin Books Ltd

Extracts taken from
The Female Eunuch
by Germaine Greer. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins © 2006 by Germaine Greer

All rights reserved.
You may not copy, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (including without limitation electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, printing, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

eISBN: 978-1-4088-4432-8

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