{"product_id":"beautiful-people-simon-doonan-9780743267052","title":"Beautiful People: My Family and Other Glamorous Varmints","description":"\u003cb\u003eA wickedly funny memoir with echoes of David Sedaris and Augusten Burroughs, \u003ci\u003eBeautiful People\u003c\/i\u003e (originally published in hardcover as \u003ci\u003eNasty\u003c\/i\u003e) is now a BBC comedy hit series from the producer of \u003ci\u003eAb Fab\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Office\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Proclaimed \"the most brilliant, brash thing in type\" by Liz Smith, Simon Doonan's saucy prose has established him as an emerging star among literary humorists. In this break-through memoir, reminiscent of both Sedaris and Burroughs, he revisits the landscape of his youth, and displays the irresistible charm that earned him his dedicated audience. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Long before he became a celebrity in his own right--as the author of best-selling books, as the style arbiter of VH1 and \u003ci\u003eAmerica's Top Model\u003c\/i\u003e, and the marketing genius behind Barney's New York--Simon Doonan was a \"scabby knee'd troll\" in Reading, England. In \u003ci\u003eBeautiful People\u003c\/i\u003e, Doonan returns to the working-class neighborhood of his youth, and chronicles the misadventures of the Doonan clan in all their wacky glory. Readers meet his mother Betty, whose gravity-defying, peroxide hairdo signified her natural glamour; his father Terry, an amateur vintner who turned parsnips into the legendary Chateau Doonan; his grandfather D.C., a hard-drinking betting man who plotted to win his fortune by turning Simon into a jockey; and his demented grandma Narg and schizophrenic Uncle Ken, both of whom lived upstairs. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Fearing he would fall victim to the insanity that runs in his family, or, worse, the banality of suburban life, Doonan decamps with his flamboyant best-friend Biddie to London, where they hope to find the Beautiful People, that elusive clan who luxuriate on floor pillows and amuse each other with bon mots. Throughout the memoir--in essays about family holidays, the tart who lived next door, his first job--Doonan continues his bumbling pursuit of the fabulous life, only to learn, in the end, that perhaps the Beautiful People were the ones he left behind.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Simon Doonan\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0743267052\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780743267052\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Simon \u0026amp; Schuster\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 04\/14\/2009\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 304\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.60lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.30h x 5.40w x 0.80d","brand":"Simon Doonan","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":44054787424511,"sku":"9780743267052","price":15.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_4e64f8cb-95fe-441c-8952-27092bbc6606.jpg?v=1685031992","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/beautiful-people-simon-doonan-9780743267052","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}