Opening sentence: The thing about Los Angeles is that it’s awful and I hate it, but when I’m there, nowhere else exists, and I can’t imagine leaving. I heard sexist and racist comments and fumed silently, exchanging outraged instant messages with other assistants. Will I try to convince myself that if they are interested in supporting a critique of Hollywood, the ends will justify the means?

This month, when my book was published in the US, he sent me a congratulatory message, saying how thrilled he was for my success. Quickly becoming embroiled in the day to day discussions, power struggles and gossip in her office, she meets a pretty astonishing array of dreadful people, classic LA/Hollywood characters. I also knew he had passed on projects I advocated for because of their “narrow” focus on mostly women. Isabel Kaplan’s forthcoming debut novel, Not Safe For Work, follows an ambitious young woman trying to succeed in the entertainment industry without selling her soul. The writing is fresh and stylish and the conversational tone helps the thought-provoking narrative zip along.When rumours of an assault start to circle the office, and your close friend confesses her own disturbing experience, you know there is plenty to gain from staying silent. behind the glitter and the justice, everyone is tarnished and compromised - including even our narrator. Only after the fact did it occur to me to wonder why a male executive would ever think it appropriate to give a female employee a goodbye kiss at the end of the work day, regardless of where on the face his lips landed. I felt personally that I’m just a little bit out of the age range for this as some of the situations in the book were fairly obviously on the way and she just didn’t seem to pick up on the cues. I do not miss any of the above, but I did appreciate the reminder and the confirmation that it happens to most of us.

I left my job at the TV network to go to graduate school, during which time I wrote a novel about a Hollywood assistant and the slippery slope of complicity. When whispers start to circle that your office might have ‘a bit of a rape problem,’ and your close friend confesses her own unsettling encounter, you know there is plenty to gain from staying silent, and all too much to lose through speaking out.It’s an ugly truth, and one that’s difficult to discuss in the nuanced way it deserves, but women are often better foot soldiers of the patriarchy than men. We have come up with a way to discuss and punish the most violent forms of harassment and assault, but not the experiences and dynamics that live in the vast grey space where most discrimination takes place, much more subtly and insidiously, perpetrated by men and women alike.