Böcker av Ruth Crilly

Imagine being a model in the heady noughties, travelling all over the globe, your face on billboards everywhere. As Miranda Priestley might say, 'a million girls would kill for this job': well, Ruth Crilly is here to tell you why that might ... not ... quite be true. England. 2001. Ruth Crilly has embarked on a law degree and is destined for a life of normality and stability. That is, of course, until she sticks a polaroid of herself in a box somewhere in Birmingham and is scouted by one of the biggest agencies in the world. Flung between Redditch and Milan, telesales and Vogue, wizard cloaks and red shearling coats, follow Ruth through a rip-roaring, hilarious decade of not-quite-making-it as a supermodel. Fuelled by little more than cigarettes and a fear of being measured she criss-crosses the world in pursuit of fame and fortune. Bridget Jones meets the Devil Wears Prada as told by a mix of Marina Hyde and Bryony Gordon: How Not To Be A Supermodel is a time capsule of a book that dives into one of the world's most fascinating industries. Offering a glimpse into both the high glamour and juddering reality of a by-gone era, this is a comic memoir gracefully relayed by a pessimistic, sardonic disaster-magnet.

You may not know Ruth Crilly's name, but chances are you have spotted her face, particularly if you were fond of an Oxford Street shopping spree in the early noughties. Modelling then was very different to modelling now: there was reality tv, no aesthetics industry or innovative plastic surgery techniques with which to 'launch' a modelling career that mainly plays out on the squares of Instagram and TikTok. There were no press trips to five star hotels along with mini shoots at said hotels and contractual obligations to post. There were no talent managers, no brand managers, no reputational managers. Instead, there was the apocryphal legend of Kate Moss, scouted in JFK airport and rocketed to worldwide superstardom, meaning that it was totally fine and normal for strangers to approach young women outside the Oxford Circus Topshop, waving a polaroid camera and claiming to be a model scout. This is Bridget Jones meets the Devil Wears Prada as told by a mix of Marina Hyde and Bryony Gordon: an insider's nostalgic look at how we used to treat the people judged good looking enough to sell us things, and whether we have learnt anything at all (spoiler! NO, we have not).