A Vision of Loveliness

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When she finds a crocodile handbag left in a pub, it leads her to Suzy St John, a girl-about-town with the glamour, the confidence and the irresistible allure that Jane has been practising for so long. Suzy takes Jane under her wing, and Jane becomes Janey, a near carbon-copy of her new best friend and a delighted adventurer in an easy, sleazy, sixties West-End world of part-time modelling and full-time man-trapping. Levene’s prose is so fresh, so enjoyable that you can’t help reading snippets out loud' Daily Telegraph Jane James knows that she must have been born to better things than a dingy bedroom in her Aunt Doreen's house in Norbury and evenings spent eating gala pie and Heinz tinned potato salad in their 'sitting-cum-dining room'. So, armed with her well-thumbed copy of Lady Be Good, she practises her French turns, her killer smile and precisely how much thigh to show when crossing her legs, and dreams of a time when she can be a part of the world she glimpses through the Mayfair windows of the cashmere shop where she works.

I raced through A Vision of Loveliness, taking great delight in its sharply resurrected period detail... It's a delight - funny, sad and clever' Barbara Trapido There’s a certain seediness wafting around A Vision of Loveliness: The Read (BBC4, Sunday, 8pm). If you haven’t come across The Read series before the idea is wonderfully simple. It’s one actor reading one story over one hour, in this case an adaptation of Louise Levene’s 1960s-set novel. Think Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads with sound effects, illustrations and short filmed scenes. Money was rolling in, more so when the parade of random strip acts was ditched in favour of a Broadway-style show, complete with a story. But the business was growing too far, too fast and bigger personalities than even Banerjee wanted in on the action. This was not going to end well for some.Louise Levene is the author of A Vision of Loveliness, a BBC Book at Bedtime, which was also longlisted for the Desmond Elliott first novel prize, Ghastly Business and The Following Girls. She was the dance critic for the Sunday Telegraph for sixteen years and before that a dance writer on the Independent, but now works for the Financial Times. She lives in London with her husband and their two children.

Louise Levene’s cinematic satire brings sunshine and glamour … There’s pace and plenty of wit to keep you entertained until the credits roll’ Western Mail

When Amanda Baker was 14 she found a letter written by her runaway mother to her unborn child: 'Dear Jeremy' it began 'or Amanda...' Directed by Alice Johannessen, the ghosts of Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies inevitably haunt proceedings, but this is a story with a style and substance all of its own. So good, reader, I bought the book. The Read is a series of creative performance readings of iconic British novels for BBC Four. Each episode is directed by emerging talent from the New Creatives scheme. This episode features A Vision of Loveliness by Louise Levene and be performed by BAFTA nominee Liv Hill.