Julie Summers Interviewed by Marion Hume

Writer, researcher and historian Julie Summers tells the story of Vogue and its editor Audrey Withers during World War II when the magazine forged a new identity that set it up for the rest of the 20th century.

Summers explains how Withers took the magazine far beyond the realm of stylish clothes. Its top photographers including Lee Miller and Cecil Beaton sent reports about the plight of people living in war-torn Europe and beyond, and the magazine reflected the lives of ordinary people living at home. Summers tells the story of the titanic struggles between personalities at the magazine that shaped its future for years to come.

Summers is author of bestselling books including Fearless on Everest: The Quest for Sandy Irvine and Jam Busters, which was made into the ITV series Home Fires.

Here she talks to screenwriter and fashion journalist Marion Hume,  who has written for newspapers and magazines in the US, the UK and Australia including Vogue and Vanity Fair, and was for five years a senior consultant for United Nations International Trade Centre’s Ethical Fashion Initiative.

This event is part of St Hilda’s College writers’ day at the festival, a series of talks featuring the works of graduates and fellows of the college.