Becky
The juicy scandal-filled thriller inspired by 90s London
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
‘Spiky, clever, funny’ – Emma Stonex, author of The Lamplighters
‘A Vanity Fair for the mass-media age’ - The Guardian
‘A true page-turner’ – The Independent
It’s peak 90s London. Scandal dominates the headlines, men dominate the board rooms, and Becky Sharp will stop at nothing to reach the top at the Mercury newspaper.
Mingling with tabloid millionaires and trading favours with royalty, Becky lands scoop after scoop, ruthlessly carving a place for herself in a world determined to ignore her. These are the biggest stories of the decade, and Becky has something to do with every one of them.
But Becky may have more in common with the people she writes about than she thinks – what takes a lifetime to build takes only a moment to destroy . . .
Darkly entertaining, Sarah May’s Becky charts the rise and fall of an unforgettable heroine.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
This ambitious literary remix takes William Makepeace Thackeray’s much-loved Regency classic Vanity Fair and exuberantly relocates it to the 1990s London media scene. Just like her Victorian predecessor in Vanity Fair, updated anti-heroine Becky Sharp is an orphan from an impoverished background but with an iron will to succeed and a desperation to escape her past. Reinventing herself as a privately educated It-girl, she lands a job as a nanny for a powerful media family and ruthlessly climbs the ladder to become a multi-millionaire mogul herself—but at a heavy price. We follow her rollercoaster career across two eventful decades, from ambitious tabloid reporter breaking royal scoops to Succession-style boardroom battles and ultimately the phone-hacking scandal. The pacy narrative is propelled by crime, corruption, revenge, political intrigue, self-destructive partying and doomed love triangles. It’s a keenly observed portrait of elite society which skewers snobbery, sexism and celebrity culture. You’ll relish spotting the real-life inspirations for characters almost as much as you’ll enjoy ruthless Becky’s rags-to-riches ride, as she leaves ruined lives in her wake. A page-turning blockbuster which pulls off its bold premise with panache.
