For this special dovegreyreader asks... special because it has slightly more questions than usual and special because it is the first time a writer has done this twice, I have pulled out the even more special picture that Bookhound drew for Adele Geras when Adele sat in the virtual armchair as one of my first guests, and of course there's you-know-who sitting in the chair:-)
It was my pleasure to finally meet Adele last week when she was visiting the Appledore Book Festival here in Devon, more of which soon, but having been inadvertently blessed with a spare copy of Justine's biography of Coco Chanel I gave it to her, knowing what a fashion-lover she is and I really hope Adele enjoys this book as much as I have done.
Meanwhile my thanks to Justine who has taken time out of a hectic schedule to answer my questions, and how sorry I was not be in London for the launch party at Claridges, but all is not lost, Cornflower did make it to the Edinburgh event.
Why Coco Chanel and why now?
I've always been fascinated by her, for as long as I can remember -- all the way back to my childhood, when my mother had a bottle of Chanel no. 5, and it seemed to me to represent everything that was grownup and sophisticated -- the essence of what it might mean to be a woman. It's been bubbling away for a long time -- ever since I went to see Chanel's private apartment in Paris, at the end of 1997. So although the book has just emerged, the idea took root over a decade ago.
Your experiences whilst writing this book that takes you so close to such an iconic figure seem to have been full of memorable moments...
Writing and researching the book took me on an extraordinary journey -- from the Churchill archives in Cambridge, to Chanel's writing desk at 31 Rue Cambon, which is still preserved above her Paris boutique, to the bedroom where she died in the Ritz in 1971. There was such a palpable sense of her presence in the rooms she had inhabited -- I felt that if I turned around quickly enough, I might see a glimpse of her reflection the mirrored walls. And there were moments when the universe quietly chimed -- like the time I was talking to one of her oldest friends, and she told me that Chanel's favourite novels were Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier and Wuthering Heights. Both of those books seemed to provide a clue to the darker side of Chanel's life and her own self-created mythology, but the fact that I knew the narratives inside out, after writing 'Daphne', gave me hope that perhaps I might be on the right track...
I always sense your books take you deeply into uncharted waters and you emerge with new insights into yourself so where did Coco lead you?
Coco led me out of the despair that came with the end of my marriage, towards a deeper understanding of what independence might mean. You could say that in searching for Chanel, I found myself. But of course, it was far more complicated than that. There were times when all I wanted to do was curl beneath the duvet, and actually, I did spend a lot of time within the safety of my own home, writing this book, rather than presenting a brave face to the world. But I did do some traveling that was an essential element of my research: to the Chanel archives in Paris, and to Aubazine, the convent where Coco was abandoned by her father at the age of 11, after her mother died. And I also went up to Cheshire and the Scottish Highlands, where Chanel had spent time with her lover, the Duke of Westminster, It was in Sutherland that I found the crumbling mansion that the Duke had bought for her -- the ceilings were caving in, and the floors giving way, so it was literally terrifying going inside, but I couldn't resist tiptoeing upstairs to Chanel's bathroom, which still contains a 1920s bidet, apparently the first in Scotland.
Knowing what you already knew about Chanel before embarking on the book, where there any surprises in store as you researched? Any very unexpected revelations?
There were a great many unexpected revelations about Chanel that turned up during the course of my research. I don't want to reveal all the twists and turns of the narrative in my book -- it would be like giving away a spoiler in a spy story! -- but it does involve double agents and double dealings in the Second World War, that seemed to me to be as thrilling as a Graham Greene plot.
I was also surprised by the connections that Chanel had with the British -- I knew that her first lover was an Englishman, Boy Capel, but I hadn't realized that she had spent a great deal of time in the UK, until I started searching through various archives in this country, as well as the Chanel Conservatoire in Paris.
Do you know any more about her favourite books/authors? Did she read any of that Parisian milieu, Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald etc?
She read certainly read Cocteau, and adored the work of Pierre Reverdy, a French poet who had been her lover in the 1920s. But when I spoke to the two women who knew her best -- and are still alive today -- they told me, separately, that Chanel's favourite novels were 'Rebecca' and 'Wuthering Heights'. As a passionate fan of Daphne du Maurier and the Brontes -- writers whose stories were central to my last book, 'Daphne' -- I felt really thrilled to discover that Chanel and I shared a taste for the gothic.
As for Scott Fitzgerald: I'm not sure, but they would have encountered each other on the French Riviera, and there is a reference to Chanel in 'Tender Is The Night', which I quote in my book (page 176). As it happens, I also bonded with one of the archivists at Chanel in Paris over our joint love of Scott Fitzgerald... so there is some resonance there...
I have a feeling that anyone who is a fan of Chanel will also be a Fitzgerald enthusiast, and vice versa...
If you could meet and talk to Coco Chanel now, what would you tell her, what would you want her to know?
I would want her to tell me more -- about her childhood, about her nephew Andre, about the men she loved and lost, and those she walked away from... I'd still be the one asking all the questions.But if I were to tell her anything, it would be that her tenacity and unquenchable stubbornness is still inspiring. And that people still care...
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