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Our booklist on... celebrity

From models to musicians to movie stars... from reality shows to high society parties... from the depths of addiction and hubris to the heights of adoration and vanity... books exploring the myths behind celebrity give us glimpses into a world we live through vicariously, wish we had and probably know more than we should about... Here are our ten books on celebrity.

 

'Celebrity is the chastisement of merit and the punishment of talent.' Emily Dickinson

  • The Afterparty

    The Afterparty

    by Leo Benedictus
    Jonathan Cape
    A story within a story within a reality with a broken fourth wall all about our relationship with celebrity? Yes please.
    Read about 'The Afterparty'
  • Dazed and Aroused

    Dazed and Aroused

    by Gavin James Bower
    Quartet Books Ltd
    Male model Alex exists in a bubble of slogans, consumerism, castings and never fully engaging in the world. A ghost in his own life, he allows a plethora of vacuous models and parties and drink and drugs invade his aura...
    Read about 'Dazed and Aroused'
  • Great Jones Street

    Great Jones Street

    by Don DeLillo
    Picador
    Bucky Wunderlick is a rock and roll star. Dissatisfied with a life that has brought fame and fortune, he suddenly decides he no longer wants to be a commodity.
    Read about 'Great Jones Street'
  • Glamorama

    Glamorama

    by Bret Easton Ellis
    Picador
    The centre of the world: 1990s Manhattan. Victor Ward, a model with perfect abs and all the right friends, is seen and photographed everywhere, even in places he hasn’t been and with people he doesn’t know.
    Read about 'Glamorama'
  • Cause Celeb

    Cause Celeb

    by Helen Fielding
    Picador
    Disillusioned by her glitzy life in London and her desirable but cruel TV-presenter boyfriend, Rosie Richardson chucks it all in and spends four years running a refugee camp in Africa.
    Read about 'Cause Celeb'
  • The Great Gatsby

    The Great Gatsby

    by F Scott Fitzgerald
    Vintage
    Jay Gatsby is the man who has everything. But one thing will always be out of his reach ...
    Read about 'The Great Gatsby'
  • Namedropper

    Namedropper

    by Emma Forrest
    Bloomsbury
    Meet Viva Cohen: a teenage schoolgirl bombshell. Her bedroom walls are plastered with posters of silver-screen legends and, underneath her school uniform, she wears vintage thigh-high stockings.
    Read about 'Namedropper'
  • Personality

    Personality

    by Andrew O'Hagan
    Faber and Faber
    Maria Tambini is a thirteen-year-old girl with a great singing voice. Growing up on a small Scottish island, she is ready for the big time and keen to escape her ordinary life.
    Read about ' Personality'
  • Angel

    Angel

    by Elizabeth Taylor
    Virago
    Writing stories that are extravagant and fanciful, fifteen-year-old Angel retreats to a world of romance, escaping the drabness of provincial life.
    Read about 'Angel'
  • The Bonfire of the Vanities

    The Bonfire of the Vanities

    by Tom Wolfe
    Vintage
    Sherman McCoy is a WASP, bond trader and self-appointed 'Master of the Universe'. He has a fashionable wife, a Park Avenue apartment and a Southern mistress.
    Read about 'The Bonfire of the Vanities'