Biography

Grace: A Memoir

by Grace Coddington n (Knopf $49.99) Grace Coddington, American Vogue’s flame-haired creative director since 19888 and reluctant star of the documentary The September Issue, has hadad a full and fabulous life.ife. Born in Anglesey, she moved to London in the Swinging 60s when she was 18 and modelled for the likes of David Bailey and Helmut Newton, before working for British Vogue as fashion editor where her fantastical photo-shoot ideas began to emerge. She opens with a backgrounder to September Issue, saying that once she’d agreed to take partp she decided too be herself (ie, swearing like a trooper) because shshe thought it would be cucut. It wasn’t. This is a very fine biography: cacandid, modest, lylyrical and honest with chcharming line drawiingsings by Coddington and a gengenerous selection of photos. TThere’s even one of her boss Anna Wintour with a big smile on her face.

Dearie: The Remarkable Life Of Julia Child

by Bob Spitz (Random House $59.99) There have been biographies of Child before, and the movie Julie & JJulia, , but this is the most thorough scrutiny yet of the tall, formidable American who found her calling — the art of French cooking — in Paris and went on to forge a rock star career in the US as a food writer and television cook. She literally changed the way Americans cooked. Spitz goes way back to the beginning, focusing on Child’s wealthy, ultra- conservative family in Pasadena, in particular her relationship with her narrow-minded father, from which she emerged a liberal. Spitz details her exploits as an intelligence officer in the Far East during World War II, when she met her husband Paul, and the cuisine which galvanised their lives when they moved to Paris. The latter part of the book sees the couple, back in the US, plagued by illness, which Child handled with typical pragmatism; not so her husband. It’s a very readable tribute to a true eccentric, in the context of her times.

I’m Your Man: The Life Of Leonard Cohen

by Sylvie Simmons (Jonathan Cape $37.99) Excellent effort by British music journalist Simmons to untangle the complex life of the enigmatic singerwriter — with his co-operation but not his approval, if you can fathom that. Women are one common thread in Cohen’s life, from childhood (his father died when he was 9), flowing into a series of intense relationships throughout his life, including a short affair with Joni Mitchell (who called him “a boudoir poet”) and engagement to actor Rebecca De Mornay, after which he became a monk. Spirituality is undoubtedly Cohen’s sustenance — significantly, Zen Buddhism. But real life intruded: when he emerged in 2004 from a five-year retreat at a Zen centre, he discovered his business manager had cleaned him out and he had to resume recording and touring, much to the delight of his fans worldwide. A must for Cohen obsessives. There is no other kind of Cohen fan.

Moranthology

by Caitlin Moran (Ebury Press $36.99) You could call this collection of essays, reviews and interviews by British journalist Moran a loose biography, because it includes plenty of insights into her family life, but best of all it is highly amusing and often pretty brave. Her interview with Keith Richards on International Talk Like a Pirate Day is hilarious; as is her account of a night out with Gaga — destination, a sex club in Berlin (“3am. I am pretty wasted. I am kneeling on the banquette, with Gaga lying by my knees ... her eyes are pointing in slightly different directions”). The chapter “I am Caitlin Moran, and I was a Skunk Addict” would be a bold confession to four years of bad behaviour when she was smoking dope — but “I can’t really remember any of it”.