True Pleasures (30 page)

The Letters of Nancy Mitford
, edited by Charlotte Mosley, Sceptre, London, 1993.

Christopher Ogden,
Life of the Party, The Biography of Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward Harriman
, Warner Books, London, 1996.

Mona Ozouf,
Women's Words: Essays on French Singularity
, translated by Jane Marie Todd, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1997.

Belles Saisons: A Colette Scrapbook
, assembled and with commentary by Robert Phelps, Secker & Warburg, London, 1978.

Helen B. Posgate,
Madame de Staël
, Twayne Publishers, 1968.

Alan Price,
The End of the Age of Innocence: Edith Wharton and the First World War
, St Martin's Press, New York, 1996.

Joanna Richardson,
The Bohemians: La vie de Bohème in Paris 1830–1914
, Macmillan and Co, London, 1969.

Joanna Richardson,
The Courtesans: The Demi-Monde in 19th Century France
, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1967.

Joanna Richardson,
La Vie Parisienne 1852–1870,
Hamish Hamilton, London, 1971.

George Sand,
Indiana
, translated by George Burnham Ives, Academy Chicago Publishers, Chicago, 1997.

Madame de Sévigné: Selected Letters
, translated by Leonard Tancock, Penguin, London, 1982.

Cornelia Otis Skinner,
Elegant Wits and Grand Horizontals: Paris
–
La Belle Epoque
, Michael Joseph, London, 1963.

Sally Bedell Smith,
Reflected Glory: The Life of Pamela Churchill Harriman
, Touchstone, New York, 1997.

Germaine de Staël,
Corinne or Italy
, translated and edited by Avriel H. Goldberger, Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick and London, 1987.

Gertrude Stein,
Paris, France
, Liveright, New York, 1970.

An Extraordinary Woman: Selected Writings of Germaine de Staël
, translated by Vivian Folkenflik, Columbia University Press, New York, 1987.

Penelope Hunter-Stiebel,
Louis XV and Madame de Pompadour; A Love Affair with Style
, New York, 1990.

Judith Thurman,
Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette
, Bloomsbury, London, 1999.

Louise de Vilmorin,
Madame de
, translated by Duff Cooper, Helen Marx Books, Canada, 1998.

Janet Wallach,
Chanel: Her Style and Her Life
, Nan A. Talese, New York, 1998.

Edith Wharton,
A Backward Glance
, Century, London, 1987.

Edith Wharton,
French Ways and their Meaning
, Restoration at the Mount and Berkshire House Publishers, Massachusetts, 1997.

Edith Wharton,
A Motor Flight Through France
, Northern Illinois University Press, DeKalb, 1991.

Andrea Weiss,
Paris was a Woman; Portraits from the Left Bank
, Pandora, London, 1995.

Noel Williams,
Five Fair Sisters at the Court of Louis XIV
, GP Putnam's Sons, New York, 1906.

Renee Winegarten,
Mme de Staël
, Berg, New Hampshire, 1985.

I am deeply indebted to all the team at Varuna – The Writers' House for the benefit of its development forum for works-in-progress and subsequent mentorship: special thanks to my mentor Margaret Simons. In London, thank you to Rachel Thompson. In Geneva, thank you to Ellen Hansen. In Paris, grateful thanks to the officials of the Institut de France and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (Cardinal Richelieu); Madame Axelle Marois of the Ritz Paris; Monsieur Omar Guerida, proprietor of Chez Omar; le Professor Dominique Verdy of La Société des Amis de Versailles; and to Titi and Felix Boukobza. In Sydney, thanks to Sally Hone, Natalie Hoy and Rebecca Weisser and also to Clare, Michael and Justin Holdforth. At Random House Australia, many thanks to Jeanne Ryckmans and Nadine Davidoff. Thank you, Syd Hickman.