HOW TO MAKE ENEMIES AND ALIENATE PEOPLE

In 1995, at the age of 32, English journalist Toby Young left London for New York to work as a reporter for one of today's most influential and glamorous magazines, Vanity Fair. Other Englishmen had succeeded in similar endeavors—Alistair Cooke, Tina Brown, Anna Wintour—so why not him? However, things didn't go exactly as planned. Within two years, Toby was fired from Vanity Fair, kicked out of the Big Apple's trendiest bar, and, on top of that, hadn't been able to find a date in ages—not even for a fee. HOW TO MAKE ENEMIES AND ALIENATE PEOPLE is the entertaining—and true—story of the five years Toby spent in New York, looking for love in the wrong places, rubbing shoulders with the celebrity circle of the world's most famous city, bouncing around the hottest bars—without making it to the VIP area—and working tirelessly toward rock bottom, descending from editor of a glossy magazine to sex toy test pilot. Upon returning to London, he discovered he'd witnessed something far beyond what's portrayed in magazines and on TV: a dirty struggle for power and status in which anything goes to get ahead and appear in the media. He then decided to write about his experiences, recounting every detail and discovery from his years in New York. This account spares no attention from journalists, celebrities, publicists, and everyone involved in today's "myth" industry. More than one of the funniest self-deprecating stories ever written, HOW TO MAKE ENEMIES AND ALIENATE PEOPLE is, above all, a fierce and intelligent attack on celebrity culture. A sort of Bridget Jones in trousers with a touch of The Bonfire of the Vanities, Toby Young's book was a bestseller in every country where it was published.