If a writer is going to craft a novel from well-known events, they might as well do it with brio, which this has in spades... A skilled and sparking debut Suzi Feay, Guardian

Since reading the totally, totally beautiful Swan Song, I have two new hobbies. Googling photos of Barbara Paley and watching videos of the Camel Walk." -- Dolly Alderton The book is dripping with atmosphere and character and is such a pleasure to read. And Then I Read A Book blog Scandalous, frenetic, amusing and tragic, this throws open the doors to a privileged world driven by money, sex, power and influence, where stakes are high and, when trust is broken, there’s much to lose. Daily Mail She reminded us of Capote’s words: ‘rearrange the rules to suit yourself.’ You learn from the best, you bend the rules to suit your purposes, and you make them your own.Styan, J. L. (1984). All's Well that Ends Well. Manchester University Press. p.48. ISBN 9780719009990 . Retrieved 21 April 2019. A dazzling debut about Truman Capote, the literary icon of his age, and the beautiful, wealthy, vulnerable women he called his Swans. Tom manages a theatre in Somerset under threat of closure, prompting locals to rally round to try and save it. Greenberg-Jephcott's debut is a devastating read that blurs the lines between vulnerability and narcissism; sex and power. And, ultimately, it is Capote's self-destruction that will have you racing breathlessly towards the end The Pool

The narrative idea was apparently to write a revenge tale, where the socialites (the "swans") tell their side of the story, and the author introduces a "we"-narration with shifting points of view, which doesn't always work, but is quite interesting. But make no mistake, this is not about empowerment or feminism: The swans sound like absolutely terrible, shallow people who used to hang out with Capote because he was kind of exotic and amusing. They are not glamorous, they are completely void. Capote is turned into a caricature, regularly referred to as "the boy" when he is already a grown-up man (you could argue it's to maintain some connection to the narrative thread about his childhood, but it's derogatory), he is the "elfin" with the "girlish voice", he is a "twisted little cherub", he says sentences like "Weeeelllll, you seeeeeee, Gore was drunk as a skunk, quelle surprise" - I'm sorry, but women who talk about a homosexual man like that are not "beautiful, wealthy, vulnerable women" (the blurb), they are mainly idiots. Granted, Capote himself was known for his vicious comments and he betrayed their trust, but the whole set-up of the story suffers from the fact that everyone is just terrible, and I don't feel like this was an intentional narrative decision.The Swans moved in a kind of ritualised boredom, leavened only, it seems, by personal chit-chat, a flat-line circuit in the deadly monotony of the idle rich. They had become dependent on Capote’s eagerness to listen, to inject vitality and life and interest into their doings. He filled, our author suggests, the gaping holes in their lives, discovering them to be remarkable. All literature, Capote suggests in Swan Song is gossip. The Swans with their stories say there is no Truman without us, but know equally there is no us without Truman. They have six-hour lunches, they meet on yachts in the Mediterranean, in villas and palaces, on beaches and at resorts, and of course in New York and its surrounding estates and gardens. They are photographed and quoted, in the age before the internet and social media, gobbled up in the glossies and the gossip columns. There is much of interest here. Capote was a fascinating, damaged character. There are points in the story where you can pause and switch to YouTube to watch events being referred to (I would very much recommend watching the infamous interview on the Stanley Siegel show where Capote turned up high and rambled - it gives an insight into the state of his life and mind at that point in the story - if you have been reading this book prior to watching that clip, it is heartbreaking). There was too much jumping around, too many unnecessary, almost sentimental scenes, and honestly, after the first two or three of the swan's stories, I started mixing them all together, casting Gloria as Marella and Lee as Slim... High society, the glitterati, entwined with the arts, the literati, mixed with Hollywood, with Broadway, and with politics. It was Capote’s finest and most influential public hour However ignorance of a book’s real life subject, when such subject is from the last Century or so, is, in the days of Google, Wikipedia and YouTube, not a barrier to literary enjoyment. My even greater ignorance of for example Pauline Boty, Tacita Dean, Lord Kitchener, Lucia Joyce and Louise Bourgeois hardly prevented my love for Ali Smith’s seasonal quartet or appreciation for this year’s Republic of Consciousness longlist.

A fascinating look at American high society in the Sixties and Seventies, and a portrait of a talented writer who couldn’t resist gossip, even if meant ruining his life Stylist A stunning debut novel that seamlessly blends history, fact and fiction in this imaginative re-telling of the life of novelist Truman Capote Woman's Weekly A vastly different vision of the male teenage clique, this is a dystopian nightmare of young men linked by brutality. Alex and his gang of “droogs” imbibe drug-laced “Knifey Moloko”, preparing for a night of sociopathic violence. They rob, rape and kill in a series of horrific crimes. There’s a hierarchy within the group, which gives way to tensions, in-fighting and challenges for dominance. Alex is betrayed, leading to his incarceration and “aversion therapy”. The clique is defined by callous detachment, desire for power and violence-as-pornography. It raises chilling questions about gang mentality and free will.

Mike Bartlett's KING CHARLES III UK Tour Announces Extension, Thru Spring 2016". BroadwayWorld. 3 November 2015 . Retrieved 21 April 2019. Firstly, all the people are shallow, self-centred and vindictive, with Capote being the worst of them. I realise there is little an author can do if their chosen subjects are not nice people, so this is not a criticism of the book, but more an explanation of my reaction to it. Author: Kent-based freelance conference producer Laura Marshall is a recent graduate of Curtis Brown Creative three month writing course. Friend Request was the runner up for The Bath Novel Award 2016and was also shortlisted for the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize 2016.