The Allure of Chanel

“It’s an interesting memoir because it’s all about what she thinks not what she did.” —David Patrick Columbia, The New York Social Diary

“Morand was a citizen of the world, with a sharp eye and a neat turn of phrase.”
—The Tablet

“This enchanting, tiny book is the closest anyone can get to a face-to-face with Coco. It’s written in her voice (‘that voice that gushed forth from her mouth like lava’) and in her words (‘those words that crackled like dried vines’), and though it’s full of lies, omissions and contradictions, there’s enough raw truth in it to reflect the extraordinary woman who was Chanel, even though glimpsed shard by shard in a broken mirror.
—The Spectator

“Paul Morand recaptures a WWII-era conversation between the author and the fashion icon.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Morand was the all-round aesthete.”
—Nicholas Lezard, Guardian