Hilarious, witty and often unexpected, Rachel Johnson’s A Diary of the Lady, My first Year as Editor keeps the publicity momentum started with Chanel 4’s fly-on-the-wall documentary The Lady on the Revamp going. Engaging and endearing, her writing makes you want her, and her magazine to succeed. So much so that, 30 pages in, I decided to actually buy The Lady. The 5 October issue had a wonderfully ironic black and white cover picture of Coco Chanel on a Schiap shocking pink background, extracts from Justine Picardie’s Chanel biography and a guide to being a SWOFTY (Single Woman Over Fifty). Not exactly relevant to my life, but rather relevant to society.
You could dismiss The Diary of a Lady as a mere publicity and money-making stunt aimed at widening readership. If this is the case, I fell for it. I now check the mag’s cover every time I pop by the newsagent. Even though this is far from being one of my regular buys, it has gained a very special, weird and unexpected place in my heart. I don’t want it to fail, and I hope that Johnson will write a Diary of the Lady II. Or at least that she will start a behind-the-scenes blog on the mag website.
