These Foolish Things

Few people can say they have shaped the cultural landscape of the last four decades while crossing paths with some of the most extraordinary personalities on the planet. But then, of course, Dylan Jones isn't just anyone.

These Foolish Things captivatingly charts Dylan's life: from his peripatetic childhood and late adolescence in 1970s London - a city then alive with possibility - to his award-winning tenure at what would become one of the most dynamic magazines of its era, GQ. It details how he came to be in that hot seat: a journey through the Swinging London slipstreams of punk and new romanticism, and through i-D, The Face and Arena, which created the platform on which GQ was based, with Dylan as a common denominator.

Littered with a gold-star cast of characters - including a who's who of celebrity from David Bowie and Bryan Ferry to Alastair Campbell and Prince Charles, via Samuel L. Jackson, Piers Morgan and Rihanna - this memoir reflects on how GQ became an established style and how Dylan sought to stir up music, politics and fashion.

Witty, perceptive and deliciously entertaining, but by turns bravely vulnerable, These Foolish Things is a memoir like no other: a dazzling retelling of the start of the twenty-first century from one of the world's most fascinating media giants.

He is always in the room where it happens -- Hadley Freeman Sunday Times
An insider's take on a wild world of egotistical celebrities, wayward columnists, tricky cover pop stars and, oh yes, the parties Telegraph
A glittering career, on paper Strong Words
Transported to a world of scarcely imaginable glamour, of sybaritic indulgence unrivalled since the days of Rome Guardian
These Foolish Things is the glittering chronicles of [Dylan's] adventures in media, music, politics and fashion i
An absorbing and unstintingly entertaining memoir Independent
Hilariously indiscreet -- Nick Duerden
From the heart of punk and the New Romantic Movement, he would eventually end up at the centre of Britain's shifting political discourse National News
An extraordinary trip through modern British culture taking in some of the biggest names in pop, rock, media and art -- Matthew d’Ancona
A very personal memoir New Statesman
Absolutely extraordinary Esquire
Dylan has run some of the most important newsrooms and magazines in the country. The story is anything but foolish -- James Harding Tortoise

New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author Dylan Jones has written or edited over twenty-five books. In the eighties, he was one of the first editors of i-D, before becoming a Contributing Editor of The Face and Editor of Arena. He spent the next decade working in newspapers - principally the Observer and the Sunday Times - before embarking on a multi-award-winning tenure at GQ. During his editorship, Conde Nast's flagship magazine won more awards than any other title - over eighty. A former columnist for the Guardian, the Independent and the Mail On Sunday, he is a Trustee of the Hay Festival and an independent BBC television producer. In 2012 he was awarded an OBE for services to publishing. He is currently the editor-in-chief of the Evening Standard.

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