Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures, By Emma Straub

In this Fitzgerald-inspired debut set in Hollywood's golden age, Straub traces an actress's career from summer stock extra to Oscar-winning star.

Fleeing to LA as a teenager, blonde mid-westerner Elsa Emerson dyes her hair and reinvents herself as Laura Lamont. Success is quick to follow, especially when after a failed first marriage she gets involved with Irving Green, a powerful movie executive.

Straub's no-nonsense epic might not throw any new light on the darker side of celebrity or the miseries of the studio system, but fans of the era won't like it any the less for that