Preview "Janey and Me" in a new window.

Book Description

Is it every woman's fate to turn into her mother? This is renowned writer and journalist Virginia Ironside's poignant and blackly funny memoir of life with fashion professor and media icon Janey Ironside.

Stylish, beautiful and self-loathing, Janey Ironside was to lead a cultural revolution. In 1956 she became Professor of Fashion at the Royal College of Art, then an extraordinary appointment for a young mother. Discovering and promoting designers like Ossie Clark and Bill Gibb, she changed the way people dressed around the world and herself became a fashion icon. Yet the qualities that made her great - wit, talent and drive - did not bring happiness to either her or her family. Having grown up in colonial India, Janey suffered a painful childhood separation from her parents.

She married dashing artist Christopher Ironside, but eking out wartime rations ill-suited a woman whose idea of divine punishment was 'to spend eternity washing up.' Dress-making soon filled the void, while her daughter Virginia endured a string of au pairs, embarrassing outfits and acute loneliness. As Virginia fought to be her own person, plunging into the swing of the sixties as a rock journalist, she was caught between a father she adored and a mother bent on self-destruction. Now a renowned writer, she has drawn a startling portrait of a gifted woman in a time of extraordinary change. Blackly comic, beautifully written and deeply moving, JANEY AND ME reflects the universal struggle to emerge from our parents' shadow.



In The Press


About the Author


Read on Your Favourite Devices

to find out more


Ebook Permissions

to find out more

About this Ebook

File formats
This ebook is available in:
The publisher has not yet supplied format information.
Pre-order formats shown are based on publisher intent and may change before release.
File sizes shown are an approximation. The actual download size will vary based on the application you use to read the book.
Publisher
Published
; Copyright:
ISBNs
Title
Series
Author
;
Edition
Imprint
Language
Number of Pages
Page count shown is an approximation provided by the publisher. The actual page count will vary based on various factors such as your device's screen size and font-size.