After Andy: Adventures in Warhol Land

Born into an aristocratic British family in 1963, fashion journalist Fraser-Cavassoni (Sam Spiegel) chronicles her education in rebellion as a member of a star-studded social set during the last decades of the 20th century. A maven of the rich and famous, the younger Fraser-Cavassoni dips into wild parties brimming with cleavage and cocaine as easily as she socializes with willowy rock musicians (at age 17 she had an affair with Mick Jagger). Recording her many flirtations, Fraser-Cavassoni skips between London, Hollywood, New York, and Paris, describing a string of gal Friday experiences with powerful movie and fashion agents that paved her way to working in Warhol Studios. It is a breezy account in which chapter topics dissolve into lengthy detours. Less than a third of the book concentrates on Warhol and entourage, not enough to warrant his name in the subtitle. However, her cocktail, catwalk, and nightclub sketches provide an amusing stories of the consummate “English Muffin” (a term for well-born British women working for Warhol) with physical attributes “spilling out in all the right places.” This is a perfect beach read. (Aug.)