'How could they tell?' inquired Dorothy Parker when it was announced that president Coolidge had died. Her serpent tongue was notorious in the age of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Hemingway. Gay, attractive, crackling with talent, Dorothy Parker starred in the most famous literary circle of the day. In verse, in New Yorker reviews, in lightning wisecracks, she cut everyone down to her own five feet. This is a recapturing of the extraordinary woman who lived and drank in splendour, loved in snatches, practised suicide and died alone in squalor. Beyond the wit and glitter, her story is sad yet brave.