FROM THE PUBLISHER

In 1993 Liz Tilberis seemed to have it all. She was a working mother with a family who adored her. As editor-in-chief of Harper's Bazaar, she lived at the center of the glamorous world of international fashion and was widely recognized as one of the most powerful people in the industry. Her days were filled with fashion shows and glittering parties. Her circle of friends included Karl Lagerfeld and the Princess of Wales. That year she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. The therapy succeeded, but the cancer eventually recurred. This time, treatment involved an excruciating and life-threatening bone marrow transplant. Although drained physically and emotionally, Tilberis conducted editorial meetings from her hospital bed. Today, under her leadership, Harper's Bazaar is one of the world's fashion authorities. She also continues to fight on behalf of other cancer sufferers. As president of the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund, Liz Tilberis is speaking out about a disease that she believes she developed because of the fertility treatment she underwent years before. This memoir offers a look inside the world of fashion magazines and a candid account of a battle with a debilitating illness.

SYNOPSIS

The editor in chief of leading fashion magazine Harper's Bazaar tells how she battled and survived deadly ovarian cancer.

FROM THE CRITICS

Entertainment Weekly

A heartfelt memoir.

Entertainment Weekly

[A] heartfelt memoir.

Kirkus Reviews

Ovarian cancer and the world of fashion are strange bedfellows in this autobiography by the editor-in-chief of Harper's Bazaar. A curious combination, but one the author pulls off with intelligence and flair (and the assistance of a talented writer). The book opens with a description of the ultimate New York party, with Tilberis celebrating her acknowledged success as the editor brought over from England to revive the Hearst fashion magazine. Here were Calvin and Ralph, supermodels and movie stars gossiping and enjoying themselves, even as Tilberis and her husband hid the fact that tomorrow she would face life-or-death surgery. She did not die, and indeed recovered sufficiently to receive an award presented by her friend, Diana Princess of Wales, at Lincoln Center. But the cancer returned, treated with what was then a radical therapy, a bone marrow transplant. Her hair fell out, her nails fell off, and she lost the weight that had led one reporter to call her "bovine." Tilberis continues to receive chemotherapy from time to time to stave off recurrence of the cancer, but she also continues her work at Bazaar. Indeed, much of the book is devoted to amusing and unpretentious tales of her climb from art student to international fashion force, including fashion shoots with models wrapped in bandages or where games of strip Ping-Pong whiled away down times. Along the way, she acquired a devoted husband and two adopted children. Itþs the fertility drugs that she took in early efforts to become pregnant that she names as the cause of her villainous cancer, a theory that has some support in the medical community. A lively, unflinching, and informative account of a woman's bout withovarian cancer that could kick off the kind of campaign that made breast cancer a priority in women's health studies. (b&w photos, not seen)

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