With Friends Like These

by Nicholas Coleridge

A brilliantly fast-paced thriller set in the world of magazines and high society

Genres: Fiction

464 pages, Paperback

First published February 10, 1997

About the author

Nicholas David Coleridge CBE is the Managing Director of the magazine publishing house Condé Nast in Britain. He was awarded the 1982 prize for British Press Awards Young Journalist of the Year when he was a columnist at the Evening Standard, and the Mark Boxer Lifetime Achievement Award for magazine journalism by the British Society of Magazine Editors in 2001.

He has written twelve books, both fiction and non-fiction, based largely upon either his professional life (The Fashion Conspiracy, Paper Tigers, With Friends Like These) or social novels (Godchildren, A Much Married Man, "Deadly Sins"). He has been Chairman of the PPA - the magazine publishers' association - and Chairman of the British Fashion Council. He was founding Chairman of Fashion Rocks, the fashion and rock music annual extravaganza, which has raised more than £3 million to date for the Prince's Trust charity. He was on the Advisory Board for the Concert for Diana, Wembley Stadium 2007. He has been a member of the Council of the Royal College of Art, and a member of the Trading Board of the Prince's Trust and is Deputy Chairman of The Campaign for Wool, 2009-. He is a Director of PressBof, the parent organisation of the Press Complaints Commission. As a journalist, he has been an irregular contributor to the Daily and Sunday Telegraph, The Spectator and the Financial Times.

He is the great-great-great-great-great nephew of the poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. He was educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge where he studied Theology and History of Art.

He is married to the author and children's book reviewer Georgia Metcalfe. His enthusiasms include India and Indian art, gardening, sunbathing, hillwalking and photography.

Reviews

[Kate Lockley-Campbell · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ok, so I am a little late to the party on this novel. Originally released in 1997, and it has not aged well.

It was difficult to read since the story took place 18 years ago. Sometimes, I felt that it was discriminatory towards women and had verbiage that is not necessary to describe ethnicities. The magazine world was also a much bigger playground in the UK compared to North America, so I couldn't relate to characters nor the world they lived in. Not to mention that magazines are relics now.

The writing was wordy all over the place. I got bored easily with cut aways every few paragraphs... it made it difficult to know what was real time and what was a backstory.

I found myself skimming and finally jumped to the final chapter just to get it over with.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't mind the mundanities of the publishing world and enjoyed the pace of the novel. BUT some parts were just too much for me to look past like...
- why the main character is a very smart person but makes stupid decisions and seemingly overlooks key facts
- suzy's character development sucked
- a series of increasingly unbelievable coincidences and recurring characters around the globe

[Jeanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written like a true magazine publisher, name dropping all the way. Much too wordy, as are all this author's books, with far-fetched plot devices, but nonetheless entertaining.

[Siv30 · Rating 3 out of 5]

לסקירה מפורטת בעברית ואנגלית, קישור לבלוג שלי -

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[Jayne Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, what a great book. Written in a highly readable style, it pitches the reader into the action from page one. It's a fast paced thriller and a fascinating expose of the glossy magazine industry all rolled into one. Even a battle to save a cosmetics advertising account can be edge of the seat stuff when it's written like this. I fairly whizzed through the pages. A lot of parallels with 'The Devil Wears Prada', though there is more hands-on magazine stuff here, at least in the first half. I would have to admit that some elements of the whodunnit storyline stretched belief - and relied on some spectacular police incompetence to make the plot work. On the other hand it was such an entertaining read that I was more than happy to forgive this!

[Ginger West · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was hoping this would be more along the lines of the other Nicholas Coleridge book I had read, A Much Married Man. This was more of a mystery. An alright book, just very different from A Much Married Man.

[Ann · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed the beginning, and the writing was consistently good throughout. The problem with the book is that there were some increasingly unlikely plot twists as the book progressed, making me more and more disinclined to continue.

[Marlies · Rating 2 out of 5]

not as much fun as Much Married Man but a good summer read

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favorite book of this writer, too much corporate talk and boring boardroom meetings. The plot also did not grab me.

[Darren Lott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a great writer but a good story, good plot, fun read.