Gyles Brandreth

We've done a few interviews in New York, and this is a very special one.

And my special guest today is someone who, well, really is the sensibility of New York, is the voice of New York.

In fact, the New York Times called her a modern-day Dorothy Parker.

As some of you may know, I'm the president of the Oscar Wilde Society, and at a recent gathering of Oscar Wilde enthusiasts, we fell to talking about who might be considered a contemporary Oscar Wilde.

And we bandied a few names around.

Older people mentioned the great American James Baldwin, who had an incredible way with words.

And I know our guest today, well, she was an admirer of James Baldwin.

Somebody mentioned Stephen Fry.

Well, he's certainly remarkable.

He's already been a guest on Rosebud.

Well, today's guest is a woman.

She's a New Yorker.

She's a phenomenon.

She is Fran Leibovitz.

She's a cultural critic.

She's a public speaker.

She's an author today with Writer's Block, famous for her books, Metropolitan Life, Social Studies, The Fran Lebowitz Reader.

And then she really stopped writing.

She was a journalist.

She worked, for example, on Andy Warhol's Interview magazine.