Anne de Courcy states in her prologue that her book is neither a biography of Coco Chanel nor a history of the Riviera, as both themes have been explored in multiple books. Rather it explores her life around topics, slowly revealing more of the woman as the piece develops. She had a succession of glamorous lovers but it seems likely that the real love of her life was Arthur ‘Boy’ Capel who died in a car accident in 1919. This explosive narrative reveals for the first time the shocking hidden years of Coco Chanel’s life: her collaboration with the Nazis in Paris, her affair with a master spy, and her work for the German military intelligence service and Himmler’s SS. When I was looking for a book about Chanel I was looking to find information and inspiration, as a young professional woman, a designer in a male-dominated industry I wanted to hear her voice, to understand her creative vision, to learn more about her business decisions and how a woman from a plane background managed to create an empire in an era when women had to fight for the right to do business.

The book is regarded as controversial because it has triggered a strong dislike of Chanel in many readers.

Justine Picardie wrote a remarkably detailed Chanel biography in which she reveals her life before she became the name the world would come to know and her path to becoming one of the world’s true fashion greats. Her early years were a struggle, but she eventually found her way into the world of fashion and quickly made a name for herself. Sgueglia has written a short biography that is accessible to even novices on the genre and gives an interesting overview of the woman that is now looked upon as the embodiment of fashion and style. The book is such a fascinating read and very inspirational and I absolutely adore the accompanying images.

I would recommend the book but it does jump around a bit and some things that Coco said and stories she told about herself are hard to trace so we don't actually know if they are all true. The way she presented Coco Chanel's rise to fame and fortune against all odds is an interesting spin, and one I thoroughly enjoyed. She spends a great deal of time telling us what biographer X or biographer Y had to say about this or that murky period in the life of Chanel.For more details, please consult the latest information provided by Royal Mail's International Incident Bulletin.

I don’t want to spoil the book by saying too much but I found this such an interesting read, I didn’t know much about Coco before I read this so I loved reading about her journey and what she had been through in her life. Devastated by a personal tragedy, Chanel shut herself off from the world, then, after several endless months, she settled on creating a perfume and her newly found aim gave the mother of fashion new strength. But I find more things that really fun at the middle of the book，and when I hear her story, I was touch be her story. Coco Chanel had a really interesting life and rose from being an 'orphan' into owning one of the biggest fashion houses in the world. Chanel was an iconoclastic entrepreneur, who rebelled against and manipulated gender expectations of her time.While I feel that I know a lot more about Chanel now that I've read the book, it was a very cumbersome effort to try to finish it. For readers of The Paris Wife and Z comes this vivid novel full of drama, passion, tragedy, and beauty that stunningly imagines the life of iconic fashion designer Coco Chanel—the ambitious, gifted laundrywoman’s daughter who revolutionized fashion, built an international empire, and become one of the most influential and controversial figures of the twentieth century. Her name was Coco Chanel, and her couture creations revolutionized women’s fashion, winning fans around the world. She seemed to have an attitude and the way she spoke of her upbringing and family didn't endear me to her, but her impact on the fashion world is undeniable and the author has done a brilliant job of bringing her to life. Meet Billie Jean King, the tennis star who has dedicated her life to breaking barriers both on and off the tennis court.