by Laurence Phillips A witty and shrewd observation of the effects of living with fame. For years, Garson Lazarre has been chronicling the lives of Paris' ex-pat community from his bar stool at a left bank cafe. After his controversial disappearance, friends salvaged his journals - a fascinating, entertaining, sometimes hilarious, often touching account of the lives of the city's most eccentric characters. Meet serial divorcee Barbie Rushworth, who married her way from a South London pub to Versailles, Hollywood legend Kay Dorsey, and society gigolo Rudi Rivoli and discover the secret past of Boulevard Sam Michel and the many faces and birthdates of former child star Bonnie Vale in a dozen short stories. Laurence Phillips, himself a veteran chronicler of French Life and former Paris correspondent for radio and newspapers, takes many a gentle swipe at the contemporary obsession with celebrity, and pays occasional homage to Hollywood’s heyday in this warm and satirical evocation of a city he has loved for a lifetime. FREE standard delivery in the UK. ISBN 9780955824722