It is a tale of glamour amid the Park Avenue princesses. A story of strong cocktails, bikini waxes, endless parties and the eternal search for a husband. And if the money being put behind it is any guide, Bergdorf Blondes, the latest tell-all chronicle of life in upper-crust New York, will also see Plum Sykes crowned as the next Brit to make it as queen of Manhattan's high life.
It is Sykes's first novel and already has New York's gossip and literary circles buzzing with its portrayal of a pair of New York women on the prowl for a mate amid the Manolo Blahniks and fashion shows of the Big Apple. Publisher Miramax haspaid Sykes, a contributing editor at Vogue, an astonishing £350,000 advance, which makes it one of the biggest single deals in the history of publishing.
Though the subject matter is unlikely to win it any literary awards, booksellers are preparing to shift huge num bers on publication next month.
Some of the publishing industry's reviews have been glowing. 'This is a savvy and viciously funny trip into a glittery, glitzy world we sure wouldn't want to live in - but by which we're more than happy to be vicariously consumed,' said Publisher's Weekly .
The story is a thinly veiled autobiography of Sykes's adventures in Manhattan where she has worked as a writer since the late 1990s. Her heroine, named Moi, is a British-born fashion writer whose best friend is a rich heiress called Julie Bergdorf. Together they drift from party to party looking for a PH (a potential husband).
In part a tribute to this vacuous but fashionable world and in part a satire of its meaningless values, the book can be savagely funny. Moi appears to think that vodka is a food group and refers to oral sex as 'going to Rio' in honour of the first man to suggest she had a bikini wax. When Moi has a nervous breakdown, Julie supportively tells her: 'You'll be able to dine out on how crazy you went in Paris for months.'
The world of Julie and Moi is obsessively detailed by its acronyms. As well as the PAPs (Park Avenue Princesses) and their search for a PH, there is also the PJ (private jet) and the ATM (American English for a cashpoint machine, and here meaning a rich boyfriend). Julie and Moi also fret about their Fake Bakes (a tan acquired from the chic Portofino tanning salon) and their desperate need to be a Front Row Girl at fashion shows.
Sykes's huge advance has some literary figures furious, and others have criticised her for pulling her punches because she is part of the plastic world she is seeking to portray. 'She would treat the world of Park Avenue rather gentler than it might warrant,' said Lloyd Grove, top gossip columnist at the New York Daily News .
The parallels between Moi and Sykes are obvious. Both are British and both are fashion writers. Moi's ex-fiancé in the book is rumoured to have passing resemblances Sykes's real-life ex-fiancé, painter Damien Loeb, who is said to be none too happy about the un flattering portrayal.
Oxford-educated Sykes arrived in New York in 1998 along with her twin sister Lucy. With their slim figures and cut-glass accents they became a regular fixture in gossip columns and society pages. Writing about fashion and beauty at Vogue, Sykes was dubbed the 'quintessential Vogue girl' by the editor Anna Wintour, another member of the British mafia that runs large swaths of New York's media.
Sykes's rise into the upper echelons of the publishing world comes as another British fixture of the US scene appears to be leaving. Martin Amis, the one-time bad boy of literature, is spending this year in Uruguay as he decides on his next writing project. Amis stunned the publishing world when he secured a rumoured £500,000 contract with Miramax. The contract called for three books and a screenplay. Amis's last work, the poorly reviewed Yellow Dog , has sold relatively few copies but means the contract has now been fulfilled and comes to an end. 'Whether or not he is in favour, he has taken himself away, and that is probably a healthy thing,' says Grove.
Yet Sykes's rise shows that being British in New York is still a marketable commodity. 'It's the accent,' says Michael Wolff, a leading media writer who recently moved to style bible Vanity Fair. 'People from the UK still have a very good calling card over here, and for them New York seems to be the pot of gold.'
The anticipated success of Bergdorf Blondes also suggest that New York, and America as a whole, will survive the recent end of Sex and the City, the TV show that also detailed the lives and loves of single New York women. When the show ended last month parties were held across the city to mark its passing. Now it seems that those who worship at the altar of high fashion will soon have a new set of heroines.
