"Witty, warm, wise and illuminating" Mariella Frostrup
Sunday 2 July, The Lotos Room at The Beaumont
As part of the Mayfair Times Literary Festival 2023, we are proud to present another event in our popular literary series, bringing together Britain's best and brightest non-fiction writers to read from their latest works.
At 50, Anna Murphy, Fashion Director of The Times, feels more visible than at any point in her life to date. Her new book, Destination Fabulous, is the toolkit you need to embrace your age and celebrate the wisdom and inner beauty that comes with it.
It's not about impossible goals. It's not about running a marathon (unless you want it to be). It's not about denying the ageing process, nor attempting to erase its signs. It's not about letting everything go, either. It's about balance. It's about the possible and the present. And it's about the future you want.
How do you lift and smooth your face naturally? Should you go grey, and, if so, how? How do you deal with menopause? Anna combines her knowledge from years of writing about fashion and beauty with her openness to the alternative ways of thinking found in disciplines such as yoga and Chinese medicine. For her natural is always best.
As for fashion, Anna knows better than anyone that this can be the ultimate route into surfacing the true you. She shares all her tricks for finding your way to a wardrobe that will transform not just the way you look but the way you feel. And she shares the highlights of her conversations over the years with super-stylish agers such as Iris Apfel and Miuccia Prada. How have they got it right?
Prior to each reading, discussion and audience questions, guests are invited to enjoy a drinks reception with canapés in the hotel's Lotos Room, the private dining room appropriately named after one of New York's oldest Literary Club.
"Full of uplifting advice, practical wisdom and kind intelligence: I certainly felt more fabulous after reading it." Elizabeth Day
"A witty, warm, wise and illuminating guide to how to be your best self, inside and out. Deliciously upbeat and brimful of positivity, it's a perfect roadmap for the years ahead. I loved it." Mariella Frostrup
"Brilliant - absolutely brilliant!" Lorraine Kelly
"Anna Murphy joyfully reframes the gift of growing up, and older." Kenya Hunt
Event
Ticket Price: £40, including a copy of the book
Date: Sunday 2 July
Time: 18.00pm - drinks reception with canapés | 18.45pm - reading, in conversation with Selma Day, editor of the Mayfair Times, and audience Q&A
Location: The Lotos Room at The Beaumont
The Author
Anna Murphy joined The Times as Fashion Director in 2015, having been the launch editor of Stella at The Sunday Telegraph. She has interviewed the industry's biggest names and done everything from wearing a frock made of bin bags to attempting the Angelina leg pop. Her book How Not to Wear Black is a guide to finding your personal style and creating your forever wardrobe. As Fashion Director of The Times, it goes without saying that Anna Murphy is passionate about what we wear. The author of How Not To Wear Black believes strongly that the supposedly superficial act of choosing what to put on every morning can have a profound impact not just on how we look, but how we feel.
What has always motivated Anna in her work is to help women, and to bring them joy. At 50 she feels more visible - and more fully realised - than at any point in her life to date. She wants her readers to feel that way, too. She has an Instagram following of 23,000.
The Book
"Perhaps the most important thing I have learned when it comes to appearance is that looking your best self is, more than anything, about what is going on inside. The more fully realised you are, the more you find your purpose, the more that will shine out of you and the better you will look."
Drawing on the wisdom of writers as diverse as Pema Chödrön and Eckhart Tolle, Dorothy Rowe and Osho, Nora Ephron and Mary Oliver, Anna Murphy writes about saying goodbye to what doesn't serve you and welcoming what does; about forging relationships that work for you as well as others; and about finding your purpose, whether in your personal or professional life. Discover how the bumps on her road have helped her find her way to her true path. Her hope is that this book will help you to find yours, too.