There have been many books written about the life of CoCo Chanel; there has even been two movies (in the movies Shirley McClaine and Audrey Tatou were cast as the young and the older Mlle)

I have read The Shameful Peace by Frederick Spotts  and Hal Vaughan's Sleeping with the Enemy; in both books CoCo is depicted as a Nazi Spy. Lisa Chaney (who wrote Hide and Seek with Angels: A Life of J.M. Barrie)  has taught at Oxford and  in her introduction says that An Intimate Life was five years in the making.

I don't want to do a spoiler; Chaney's 400 + page annotated  book was the most fascinating (and here  are some of the reasons' why):

– Chaney is the first biographer to give concrete evidence that Chanel's rumoured drugs and bisexuality including an affair with Jospehine Baker 

– The book outlines her love affair with Salvatore Dali, (who hid Jews during the Nazi occupation).

-In the movie, Coco before Chanel, we meet her first lover Arthur "Boy" Capel; his letters and diary are revealed.

– CoCo Chanel's lover Hans Gunther Von Dincklage is named as a Nazi Spy; Chaney paints a different picture about Mlle.'s  own involvement.

– Which royal lover called her La Belle Dame Sans Merci, the secret behind her trademark camellia, and her rise as a fashion and fragrance icon  (perfumistas must read the Chapter Lucky no. 5).

Thanks to the publisher Viking Books we have a signed copy to one reader. Leave a comment on why you want to read this book to be eligible by November 23, 2011 EST.

–Michelyn Camen, Editor in Chief

 

"I have regret nothing in life except what I have not done."-Coco Chanel