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Status anxiety

Lessons from Tina Brown on the art of failing upwards

In New York, the facade of success is all-important. Brits do it differently

29 March 2014

9:00 AM

29 March 2014

9:00 AM

Shortly after I started working at Vanity Fair in the mid-1990s, I suggested to my boss Graydon Carter that I write an article about the number of New York society types who were bankrupt. Not morally bankrupt, but up to their eyeballs in debt. ‘Let’s get a team of researchers to go through the financials of everyone on the guest list of the annual costume ball at the Met,’ I suggested.

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Toby Young is associate editor of The Spectator.

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