My Judy Garland Life

Susie Boyt is the author of five other acclaimed novels and the much-loved memoir My Judy Garland Life which was shortlisted for the PEN Ackerley Prize, staged at the Nottingham Playhouse and serialised on BBC Radio 4. She has written about art, life and fashion for the Financial Times for the past fourteen years and has recently edited The Turn of the Screw and Other Ghost Stories by Henry James. She is also a director at the Hampstead Theatre.
She lives in London with her family.

** 'I'm blown away by this book ... endlessly thoughtful, moving and entertaining ... the writing is superb' Joseph O'Neill, author of NETHERLAND ** 'For anyone out there who still has a heart and isn't afraid to use it!' Head of the Judy Garland Fan Club ** 'The book defies definition ... it is a bold experiment that sets out to map the boundaries of celebrity obsession, and somewhere along the way discovers what it means to be human ... beautiful, heart stopping writing' Viv Groskop, OBSERVER 'What a self-deprecating, funny, moving, entertaining read it is, a mad love letter from Susie Boyt to Judy Garland ... It makes for a new kind of memoir, one that finds a way to insert, philosophically and emotionally, between the plain words "my" and "life", the everyday pathos, bathos and surreality of being alive in the modern, celebrity-glutted, couldn't-care-less Western world ... Art meets psychoanalysis meets entertainment meets reality in the bravura performance of My Judy Garland Life ... a poetically infused work in its own right ... What is extraordinary about it is its incautiousness, its flung-openness, its huge moral heart ... This book is stark naked. It wears its vulnerability like a birthday suit, and does so for all of us, in a spirit of born celebration ... This wonderfully clever book gives its whole self, flings its arms out in the rainy street like a wonderful diva. Brava' Ali Smith, THE TIMES 'You'd need the heart of a tin man not to be moved' Paul Burston, INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY 'Part memoir, part biography, part astute cultural analysis and altogether charming, this is a magical look at the roles of hero and hero worshipper' MARIE CLAIRE 'Highly original, meditative blend of biography and memoir' LONDON PAPER 'A delightfully singular memoir ... a joy to read' FT

** 'I'm blown away by this book . . . endlessly thoughtful, moving and entertaining . . . the writing is superb Joseph O'Neill, author of NETHERLAND