Dymocks Literary Lunch with Natasha Lester

Natasha Lester’s new book is a departure for her in many ways. Firstly, it’s not the usual kind of historical fiction that she is best known for. Many of her previous books were set during World War II and in France. This one takes place in the late 1950s through to the late 1960s in and around Los Angeles, USA. It is loosely inspired by Jane Eyre, the beloved novel by Charlotte Bronte about a woman who knew her self-worth and dreamed of a life larger than the one society had planned for her.

Most the story takes place inside the infamous Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood. This story has it all – the glitz and glamour of 1950s Hollywood, lives of excess and addiction, the dark underbelly of the Hollywood industry and a group of young women who are trying to navigate their way through it all. With a subtle nod to the Me Too movement, Natasha has created a thrilling, engaging and hugely satisfying novel about agency, power, secrecy and the lengths people will go to for success. 

It is always a delight to hear Natasha speak about how she finds and shapes her stories, about the risks she was willing to take in writing this one, about the research she did for the novel, and about reimagining fairer and more fulsome lives for the women who lived through those years of Hollywood power and corruption, where they were often the ones whose wellbeing and reputations were expendable.