HUGO VICKERS Biographer & Historian
'The whole saga is a louche international jet-set version of the world of E.F. Benson, a gloriously funny, high-camp extravaganza set against a background of luxury hotels, country-house weekends, yachts, caviar and champagne'

– Jeffrey Richards - Sunday Telegraph
24 April 1994



'Vickers's triumph, rather like that of Noλl Coward in writing his equally triangular Design for Living, has been to weave the lives of the three bisexual, egotistical monsters into an utterly enthralling, interlinked and cross-referenced narrative'

– Sheridan Morley - Sunday Times
1 May 1994



'Immensely entertaining but ultimately saddening account of the courtship of two of society's icons … Fascinatingly detailed'

– Alexander Walker - Evening Standard
9 May 1994



'If you want your illusions left intact - stick to the films'

– Jayne Gilman - Oxford Mail
14 May 1994



'Mercedes de Acosta's … career in the boudoirs of the posh reduces Vita Sackville-West to amateur status'

– Paul Bailey - Daily Telegraph
23 April 1994



'Entirely pointless, yet at the same time rather wonderful'

– The Observer
15 May 1994



'Fans of the frosty star will … feast on the lengthy anecdotes related to Garbo, the most mysterious of modern myths'

– The Pink Paper
6 May 1994



'If you've a taste for gossip and footnotes, Loving Garbo should satisfy your appetite for deep dish with scholarship on the side'

– Carrie Rickey - Miami Herald
14 August 1994



'Hugo Vickers seems thoroughly at home with the nobs and (more often) snobs of the entre deux guerres for whom the 1939 war was an irritatingly loud interruption of their self-indulgences. In the world he depicts, first-nighting is an act of dedication and the Windsors pass for good company'

– Frederic Raphael - The Spectator
18 June 1994



'Most fascinatingly revealed are the decidedly ungolden gay times of the period'

– Dianna Simmonds - The Bulletin, Australia
2 August 1994



'Hugo Vickers … has written a detailed and sympathetic account of the relationship, and has uncovered an impressive amount of new or long-forgotten material'

– Selina Hastings - The New Yorker
11 July 1994



'Hugo Vickers concentrates on the weird personalities and relationships between the homosexual photographer, lesbian writer and sexually conflicted actress in this gossipy book. The portrait of Garbo that emerges from Beaton's letters and diaries is hardly flattering'

– Jean Graham - New York Daily News
13 June 1994



'A wise and sensitive chronicle of Garbo's private life … Mr Vickers, one of England's foremost social chroniclers … has brought these people vividly to life without a whiff of psychoanalysis or dum-dum moralizing'

– Peter Kurth - New York Observer
18-25 July 1994



'This story would make an interesting TV miniseries'

– Travis Woolf - Chattanooga Times
1 September 1994



'Loving Garbo is a deliciously presented filigree of high-toned gossip, seasoned with just enough scholarly scrupulousness to alleviate any guilt readers might feel about dishing its always elegant figures … [Vickers] has re-created both the buzz of gossip and its corollary, the hum of emptiness'

– Amanda Vaill - Chicago Tribune
7 August 1994



'Vickers's account will appeal to Garbo fans who desire to see yet another dimension of this mysterious film star'

– Brian Anderson - Houston Chronicle
11 September 1994



'The reader of Vickers's book will be rewarded … with intriguing stories about some of this century's most glamorous people'

– Anthony Chase - Buffalo News
18 September 1994



'Probably the most entertaining biography of the year'

– G. Cabrera Infante - The Spectator
19 November 1994



'Hugo Vickers writes about all three absurd characters with an engaging zest in this hugely entertaining account of their involvement with one another. The supporting cast is glamorous and star-studded'

– Charles Osborne - Sunday Telegraph
26 March 1995



'This fascinating book explores [Garbo's] complex relationship with Cecil Beaton and Mercedes de Acosta … There are some ravishing illustrations, in which Garbo's beauty still shimmers haughtily'

– The Times
18 March 1995



'Compelling story of the febrile, shifting mιnage between Cecil Beaton, Mercedes de Acosta and Greta Garbo'

– Nicholas Lezard - The Guardian
21 February 1995



'Vickers has done a good job of sifting through the mountain of material left by Beaton and de Acosta … The result is a sharply drawn portrait of an impossibly demanding and capricious woman, holed up in her New York apartment, whimsically renewing or abandoning friendships'

– Don Cairns - Sunday Times
5 March 1995



'For students of the mystery of stardom and greatness, this makes enthralling reading'

– Tom Forsyth - Press and Journal
18 February 1995



'[A] biography … that manages to bypass the trappings of unauthorised life stories in that it tells the full story'

– Reviews
1995



'Painstakingly researched … Vickers's story takes hold with a thriller-like grip, and remains enthralling to the very end'

– Arminta Wallace - The Irish Times
19 April 1995

Loving Garbo (1994)
Hardback (UK) 2004
Hardback (UK) 1994
Hardback (US) 1994
Paperback (UK) 1995
German Hardback 1995