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This digital document, covering the life and work of Julie Burchill, is an entry from Contemporary Authors, a reference volume published by Thompson Gale. The length of the entry is 1542 words. The page length listed above is based on a typical 300-word page. Although the exact content of each entry from this volume can vary, typical entries include the following information:

• Place and date of birth and death (if deceased)
• Family members
• Education
• Professional associations and honors
• Employment
• Writings, including books and periodicals
• A description of the author's work
• References to further readings about the author

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Chapters: Andrew Sullivan, Peter Hitchens, Jade Goody, George Monbiot, Julie Burchill, Carol Vorderman, Arthur Bryant, Kevin Myers, Ben Goldacre, Rod Liddle, Auberon Waugh, Polly Toynbee, David Aaronovitch, Richard and Judy, Norman Giller, Mark Steel, Tom Wintringham, Simon Heffer, Hugh Massingberd, Mark Arnold-Forster, Frank Clifford, Vanessa Feltz, Terence Blacker, Gary Whitta, Bernard Levin, Max Hastings, Martin Cassini, Lady Diana Cooper, Cherri Gilham, Nathan Morley, Jon Gaunt, Goldierocks, Katharine Whitehorn, Gary Owen, Lynda Lee-Potter, Ted Budden, Chris Hunt, Henry Pleasants, Susie Orbach, Adrian Monck, Liz Jones, Marcel Berlins, Peter York, Eva Anstruther, Charles Moore, Hugh Slater, Zoë Heller, John Kampfner, Nick Barratt, Alison Cork, Jonathan Bartley, Simon Blumenfeld, Marina Hyde, Laurie Graham, Mollie Panter-Downes, Cooper Brown, Henry Porter, Laura Topham. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 303. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Andrew Michael Sullivan (born August 10, 1963) is an English author and political commentator. He has focused on American political life. He identifies as a political conservative. Sullivan is a speaker at universities, colleges, and civic organizations in the United States. He is a guest on national news and political commentary television shows in the United States and Europe. Born and raised in England, he has lived in the United States since 1984 and currently resides in Washington, D.C. and Provincetown, Massachusetts. He is an openly gay Catholic. Sullivan is sometimes considered a pioneer in political weblog journalism, since he was one of the first prominent political journalists in the United States to start his own personal blog. Sullivan wrote his blog for a year at Time Magazine, shifting on 1 February 2007 to The Atlantic, where it...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=177335 ... Read more

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High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Julie Burchill (born 3 July 1959, Frenchay, Bristol) is an English writer and columnist known as a "firebrand journalist specialising in OTT polemics" for a number of publications over the last thirty years. Beginning as a writer for the New Musical Express at the age of 17, she has written for newspapers such as The Sunday Times and The Guardian. She is a self-declared "militant feminist". She has several times been involved in legal action resulting from her work. She is also an author and novelist, her 1989 novel Ambition being a bestseller, and her 2004 novel Sugar Rush being adapted for television. ... Read more

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Chapters: Robert Fisk, John Redwood, Thomas Barnes, Julie Burchill, Danny Baker, Peregrine Worsthorne, Anne Robinson, Auberon Waugh, Michael Gove, Barry Davies, Sheridan Morley, David Fulton, Oliver Kamm, Martin Tyler, Harold Evans, Edward Grigg, 1st Baron Altrincham, Geoffrey Green, Stuart Maconie, Ed Vaizey, H. R. F. Keating, John Grigg, Anthony Howard, Bernard Levin, Miles Kington, Nicholas Wapshott, William Rees-Mogg, Oliver Holt, Simon Jenkins, Brian Moore, Robert Crampton, John Russell Taylor, Colin Coote, Alan Gibson, Matthew Bannister, James Godkin, Peter Hennessy, Geoffrey Dawson, Craig Brown, Gerald Sinstadt, William Francis Casey, Stephen Farrell, Roger Fulford, Everett True, Adam Fergusson, Claud Cockburn, Jeremy Flint, Robert James Thomson, Quentin Letts, Mark Lawson, Mary Ann Sieghart, Charles Frederic Moberly Bell, Thomas Chenery, Stanley Sadie, John Walter, Guy Walters, Richard Williams, Denzil Batchelor, Anatole Kaletsky, John Thadeus Delane, Barney Hoskyns, Peter Stothard, Charles Douglas-Home, Walter Wilson, Peter West, Ian Brodie, James Thursfield, Frances Cairncross, Bob Stanley, Vernon Bartlett, Dudley Carew, William Haley, John Stephen Willison, David Stubbs, Louis Heren, Peter Utley, Simon Wilde, Anjana Ahuja, Martin Jacques, Reginald Nicholson, John Woodcock, Neville Maxwell, John Harris, Caitlin Moran, Charles Wilson, Sydney Pardon, Arthur Fraser Walter, Bryan Appleyard, Alice Bowe, John Ardagh, George Wingrove Cooke, Nigel Williamson, Michael Henderson, George Pendle, William Christopher Wordsworth, David Robinson, Vivienne Parry, Peter Paphides, Adam Mars-Jones, Anna Blundy, Alan Blyth, Alice Miles, Shelley Von Strunckel, Henry Sutherland Edwards, Alan Lee, Henry Scott Stokes, Valerie Grove, Stefanie Marsh, Paul Hoggart, Penelope Houston, Catherine Philp, Rachel Campbell-Johnston. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 418. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the ...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=292226 ... Read more

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The exploits and excesses of three pill-popping showbiz heroines: Anne, the smalltown girl supposedly modelled on Grace Kelly, who captivates a millionaire but falls for an English cad; Jennifer, the beautiful Marilyn Monroe clone who possesses everything - except immortality; and Neely, the ruthless Judy Garlandesque understudy-turned-superstar. As friends - and enemies - they learn the hard way that fame, fortune, beauty and stardom don't always equal happiness. Jacqueline Susann's sensational novel staked her claim as a pop pioneer, perfectly crystallized the decadence of the 1960s - and ushered in a whole new genre of mass-market fiction.Amazon.com Review
Sex and drugs and shlock and more--Jacqueline Susann'saddictively entertaining trash classic about three showbiz girlsclawing their way to the top and hitting bottom in New York City hasit all. Though it's inspired by Susann's experience as a mid-centuryBroadway starlet who came heartbreakingly close to making it, but didnot, and despite its reputation as THE roman á clef of thego-go 1960s, the novel turned out to be weirdly predictive of 1990spost-punk, post-feminist, post "riot grrrl" culture. JackieSusann may not be a writer for the ages, but--alas!--she's still awriter for our times. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (146)

Not exactly what I expected
Trashy? yes. Kitschy? yes. But not exactly fun. After a slow beginning, the book does become extremely entertaining; however, it simultaneously becomes extremely depressing. The story's depressing content is not necessarily a flaw in itself, but coupled with characters that I had a hard time caring about, it put a bit of a damper on my enjoyment of the novel. Nevertheless, as far as beach reads go, they don't get much better than this. Don't expect great literature or happy endings. Do expect lots of drugs, lots of sex, and lots of old school diva tantrums.

Retro Chick Lit
Recalling an old story of the unknown author's hubby buying up gobs of her books to make her debut a bestseller, my curiosity wanted to know just how ameture it was. I was very intrigued to find Ms. Susann is a competent author and she wrote compelling characters in larger-than-life roles but in a believable style. Better than the movie.

Valley of the Deep Deep Depression
I just finished reading the Valley of the Dolls, and man, what a depressing book! A more appropriate title might have been Valley of Depression. *Spoiler Alert* if youhave not finished the book, you'll probably want to stop reading here.

The story revolves around 3 women living in NYC: Anne, a nice girl from Connecticut wanting only to escape rural life and support herself, Jennifer, a beautiful girl on a quest for fame, and Neeley, a waif with real talent bent on self destruction. The three fight to make it in NYC and Hollywood while maintaining romances and finding true love.

Anne manages to marry the man of her dreams, the love of her life though he winds up cheating on her with every new starlet taking chunks of their marriage with him until there is nothing left but silent tolerance. Jennifer proceeds through a series of relationships in which men only want her for her body. Then when she thinks she finds true love, ends up killing herself because she realizes the man she thought loved her for her would be devastated if she underwent a mastectomy for breast cancer. Neeley runs through two husbands only to steal Anne's and drive him away through her alcohol and drug abuse. We don't find out her final fate, but it is safe to say that she ends up dying alone of some sort of overdose.

All three women are highly successful in their careers. Neeley is a broadway, movie, and television star with a spectacular voice and rampant fan following. Jennifer starred in French films and was such a raging success that America recruited her again for films. Anne starred in commercials as the face of a major cosmetics chain and had her own television segment. They were financially comfortable, and the only woes in their lives seemed to be cause by romances which finally made them all so miserable they turned to pills for comfort.

However, both Jennifer and Neeley went through long periods of life where they could not make ends meet on their own incomes. Without family to help support them, they were forced to use their bodies to obtain support from lovers, both male and female. It really calls attention to the need for financial independence to ever have total control over ones own body. It highlighted the ability of women to stab each other in the back even after the most fervent professions of friends forever. Themes of the story include: women on an endless quest for fulfillment through love, fear of aging, the importance of physical beauty.

At times it reads like a smutty romance novel. It hooks you in, and you must find out what happens to all three. I found myself hoping against all odds that all three would live happily ever after, yet all three lives ended in tragedy. After pondering it all for a little while, I'm not really sure what message Jacqueline Susann was trying to send with this novel. That women are evil creatures bent on destroying each other? That women are overly dependent on relationships for their own happiness? That men are pigs who only care about young, thin, physical beauty? That true love does not exist?

Or maybe she just wanted to take a look at the real hard issues that women faced during the 1940's. In the time period this was set, marriage was still a practical commodity, women needed a husband to support them financially to live, and found themselves making all kinds of compromises in the process of keeping that marriage alive. And yet, women were beginning to gain freedom to become gainfully employed and support themselves, giving them the option to shun marriage if they wished. However, none of these characters, despite their material success, wanted to live without love in their lives (who would?). So what, pray tell, is the moral of the story?

I'm not sure. Jacqueline Susann seems to want to show how vulnerable women can be, while also emphasizing their ability to survive nearly anything. The book reads like a warning, feel free to make moral sacrifices to obtain your goals, just be sure you can live with their repercussions for the REST OF YOUR LIFE.

Even though it was a bit of a downer, it was an easy read that I enjoyed. And for a 25 cent bargain, the hours of entertainment it gave me cannot be beat. Now, on to the next book in my queue. Check out more reviews at my blog [...].

Valley of the Dolls
I made it through ten pages of this piece of trash.It's worse than awful, reading as if written by a child who's flunking eighth grade.The words of Dorothy Parker came to mind when I stopped:"This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly.It should be thrown with great force."

Timeless, Sexy, and Sadder Than Hell
Valley of the Dolls was more than I ever expected it to be. Go into it with an open mind and an open schedule, because you are not going to want to put this one down.

The Valley is the soul-sucking land of showbiz. The Dolls are the little pills that keep the girls in the Valley up, down, and thin. Susann pulls you into a world of glamour and then sucks every last bit of that glamour away. She pulls back the curtain and lets you see the dirt and muck that's left behind when the show is over. If you thought this book would be a pleasant bit of light reading, you were so wrong.

You follow the lives of three girls who make it big. A model, a movie star, and a singer. You see their rise to the top and cheer them on as they find their fame. But once you get to the top, there's only one place left to go... Down. And these girls fall farther than you could ever imagine. The drugs that kept them on top suck them down. And soon, they are all shells of the women they used to be. This book makes you feel lucky to be one of the dreamers rather than someone who is living the dream.

Valley of the Dolls is one of my favorite books of all times, yet one of the most depressing books I've ever read. It's incredible. Everyone should read it. ... Read more

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It is 2001 and Jacey O’Riordan is trying to get to grips with the new millennium.As senior copywriter at Touche Trott Loveless, London’s sharpest advertising agency, she is sinking under a sea of millennial products drastically in need of new images.And there are men everywhere.The predicted glut of single men between 20 and 50 has happened, and Jacey herself is a serial fiancee, engaged four times since the age of 22.Now, at 29, she becomes more and more convinced that every man is Mr Wrong.Travelling back from her father’s funeral in Manchester, she sees a railway worker stripped to the waist, working on the tracks, and is suddenly amazed to realise that, despite coming from a blue collar home herself, she has never slept with a working class man.She thinks about the men she has always dated.Men with manicures and juicers.Not one of them smelling of sump oil.Lying in bed that night, Jacey thinks, I don’t want a man with nothing under his nails but hair gel and who lets wine breathe.I want a man who can make love to me all night long, eat a full English fry up in the morning without checking his blood pressure afterwards, and then put up shelves in every room before going off to get slaughtered with his mates and be back home putting it to me across the kitchen table by midnight.I want a man with rough hands.But where do I find one?Have women, so busily reconstructing men to be as they want them, merely been hoist by their own petard?This is the theme on which Julie will beam her laser in this hilarious new novel. ... Read more