Judith Krantz

Judith Krantz was a magazine writer and fashion editor who turned to fiction as she approached the age of 50. Her first novel Scruples (1978) quickly became a New York Times best-seller and went on to be a worldwide publishing success, translated into 50 languages. Scruples, which describes the glamorous and affluent world of high fashion in Beverley Hills, California, helped define a new supercharged sub-genre of the romance novel - the bonkbuster or "sex-and-shopping" novel. She also fundamentally changed the publishing industry by becoming one of the first celebrity authors through her extensive touring and promotion - "a superstar of fiction". Her later books included Princess Daisy (1980), Till We Meet Again (1988), Dazzle (1990) and Spring Collection (1996). Her autobiography, Sex and Shopping: The Confessions of a Nice Jewish Girl, was published in 2000.