Vivienne Westwood diaries to Serpent's Tail

Serpent’s Tail will this October release Get a Life: The Diaries of Vivienne Westwood.

The book spans six year’s of diary entries from the designer, chronicling her environmental activism as well as her fashion career.

“My diaries are about the things I care about. Not just fashion but art and writing, human rights, climate change, freedom,” she said. “I call the diaries Get a Life as that's how I feel: you've got to get involved, speak out and take action.”

Mark Ellingham, publisher at Profile Books and Serpent’s Tail, bought world rights in Get a Life from Vivienne Westwood Ltd.

He said: “Vivienne Westwood is someone who says exactly what she thinks – all the time. That's what makes her diaries so compelling. You never know what she'll be writing about nor what she'll choose to say about it.”

Westwood is also the co-author of Vivienne Westwood, a “personal memoir and authorised biography” she wrote with Ian Kelly (Picador). They were later sued by journalist Paul Gorman, who said the publisher and authors had used material from his book The Look: Adventures in Pop and Rock Fashion (Sanctuary) without attributing the source.

Picador later added citations that had been “missing in error” to the paperback edition but rejected Gorman’s plagiarism claims.

Get a Life: The Diaries of Vivienne Westwood will be published in hardback and e-book on 6th October.