No Time to Die (Psychiatry Series; 37) - Hardcover

Tilberis, Liz

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0316776742 ISBN 13: 9780316776745

Publisher: Little, Brown, 1998

Synopsis

In 1993 Liz Tilberis seemed to have it all. She was a working mother with a family who adored her. As editor-in-chief of Harper's Bazaar, she lived at the center of the glamorous world of international fashion and was widely recognized as one of the most powerful people in the industry. Her days were filled with fashion shows and glittering parties. Her circle of friends included Karl Lagerfeld and the Princess of Wales. That year she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. The therapy succeeded, but the cancer eventually recurred. This time, treatment involved an excruciating and life-threatening bone marrow transplant. Although drained physically and emotionally, Tilberis conducted editorial meetings from her hospital bed. Today, under her leadership, Harper's Bazaar is one of the world's fashion authorities. She also continues to fight on behalf of other cancer sufferers. As president of the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund, Liz Tilberis is speaking out about a disease that she believes she developed because of the fertility treatment she underwent years before. This memoir offers a look inside the world of fashion magazines and a candid account of a battle with a debilitating illness.

About this title

Review:

Liz Tilberis, the editor in chief of Harper's Bazaar magazine, was at the pinnacle of her career when diagnosed with ovarian cancer, one of the disease's deadliest forms. ("When ovarian cancer is detected early, the cure rate is high: at least a 90 percent five-year survival rate for Stage I diagnosis. At Stage IV, they tell you to go home and get your affairs in order," she writes.) In 1993, the day after holding a gala holiday dinner for the likes of Ralph Lauren and Donna Karan, Tilberis underwent exploratory surgery that revealed her cancer was at Stage III. Since then, she has survived three recurrences, massive doses of chemotherapy, and a bone marrow transplant.

Tilberis's book is notable not only for the sanguine humour which she injects throughout, but also for her honesty regarding what she suspects was the cause of her cancer: fertility treatments with the hormone-stimulating drugs Clomid and Pergonal, which she points out are still widely used. (She never conceived a child, but is the mother of two adopted sons.) Tilberis is especially cutting with her descriptions of her co-workers' chilliness and lack of empathy when she first returned to work. It seems that AIDS causes notwithstanding, the world of fashion is still incapable of admitting there is suffering in the world. Tilberis also deserves praise for confessing that her infertility is due to fallopian tube-scarring from pelvic inflammatory disease--often caused by sexually transmitted diseases.

No Time to Die and Liz Tilberis are inspiring. While her cancer is in no certain way vanquished, Tilberis chooses to treat it as a chronic condition, not a killer. She's made it her mission to use her magazine platform and her position as president of the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund to raise awareness of a complicated and frightening--but possibly preventable--disease. This book is as much a tale of survival and sang-froid as it is an excoriation of the cruelties of the two-faced world of fashion.

Book Description:

The powerful memoir of Liz Tilberis, once editor-in-chief of Harper's Bazaar, and her battle with ovarian cancer.

About this edition

• Publisher: Little, Brown
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0316776742
• ISBN 13: 9780316776745
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 340