Free Spirit

A Memoir of an Extraordinary Life

New Paperback Illustrated

Postscript summary

Tanya Sarne’s memoir moves from the bright streets of Swinging Sixties London to celebrity-strewn 1970s Los Angeles and on to the present day. The founder of the iconic fashion label Ghost and an inspiration for Absolutely Fabulous, she reflects on a remarkable life shaped by creativity, chaos, reinvention and resilience, writing with candour, humour and piercing insight about fashion, fame, family and survival.

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"I read Free Spirit all in one go as I literally couldn't put it down.Tanya Sarne's courage and resilience are utterly awe-inspiring.You could read no better book than this on the zeitgeist of London and Hollywood in the Sixties and Seventies and the fashion world of the Eighties and Nineties." - Joanna Lumley

"Wherever it was at, Tanya seemed to be. This is an honest, amusing depiction of life as founder of Ghost, the British fashion brand much loved by woman of all shapes and ages. As well as navigating life through the Sixties and onwards, here is a story of a woman boss juggling motherhood, marriage, romance and every other thread of life's rich tapestry." - Alexandra Shulman

"Tanya Sarne's Ghost very quickly became the show that all the girls wanted to do - Kate Moss, Helena Christensen, Naomi Campbell, etc. It was really incredible casting and the girls LOVED the clothes. The party after the show was the 'party of the week' - she put a great crowd together and everyone turned up. You just wanted to be part of Tanya's gang because she's magnetic, kind and really funny." - Sam McKnight

"If there's a woman out there who doesn't have an old Ghost dress hanging in her wardrobe, can you please tell me exactly what you were wearing in the nineties?" - Alyson Walsh @thatsnotmyage

Free Spirit tells the extraordinary life story of Tanya Sarne and her triumphs, setbacks and survival.
Hers is a tale of resilience, of second and third chances and of global fashion success as the founder of Ghost, with a fanbase described by Marie Claire in the Nineties as 'bigger than the Spice Girls'.

Tanya's story is so much more than simply an account of incredible international fashion success (and excess). The only child of refugee parents, her life ranged from the London of the Swinging Sixties to the glamour and darkness of Hollywood in the early Seventies, to virtual destitution and abandonment with two small children in a Brazilian fishing village - all before she even dreamt of starting her own business ... or becoming one of the inspirations (with her daughter and Lynne Franks) for Absolutely Fabulous.

From busking with Andrew Loog Oldham before he managed the Rolling Stones, to being invited to stay with Sharon Tate the night of the Manson murders, Tanya is one of those people who seems to have fitted more into one life than most of us would fit into nine. But, above all, she is that still all-too-rare thing, a female entrepreneur who achieved true global success solely as a result of her own hard work and talent and entirely on her own terms.

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