The Barbizon: The New York Hotel That Set Women Free by Paulina Bren (Two Roads, £20)
How I heard about it: I spotted the fabulous 50s-inspired cover at Notting Hill bookshop Lutyens & Rubinstein.
Did I like it? Yes! I read it over one weekend.
What’s it about? A history of the birth, life and ultimate demise of ‘The Barbizon’ hotel in New York, which opened in 1927 and was converted into condominiums in 2007. But the book also explores themes of female empowerment and women’s need for independence. Tracing the aspirations, and roadblocks, of 20th century women, from the New Woman of the 1920s to the advent of Women’s Lib in the 1960s and beyond, The Barbizon tells the stories not just of the hotel’s famous residents, including writers Sylvia Plath and Joan Didion , but also glimpses the ‘hidden’ women who passed through its doors, seeking a new life in New York,
An added bonus? The Barbizon gives a fascinating insight into the workings of New York’s high fashion Mademoiselle magazine, published 1935 to 2001. The magazine was famous for its Guest Editor programme, a competition aimed at young women with literary ambition. Each summer, the winners - the chosen few - were put up at ‘The Barbizon’ hotel during their June internship at Mademoiselle. For me, as a magazine journalist, I loved this extra dimension, particularly the sections from the 1950s. Sylvia Plath, who was a Guest Editor in 1952, famously immortalised ‘The Barbizon’ hotel in her novel The Bell Jar, renaming it the ‘Amazon.’
