Cover Story

'We need to get you out of London, somewhere safe.' 'Witness protection?' 'No, but this might be a good time to take a long holiday in the country.' 'I have a job, a home, I live in London. What do you mean go to the country?' When a body part turns up on the desk of London-based journalist Victoria Manders, it's not just her story that gets spiked. As parts of her interviewee are sprinkled around London, it takes little persuading to get her to leave town for a while. With the help of a paparazzi mate, Tory heads for deepest, darkest Cornwall to the head office of the legendary Compagne: lifestyle magazine of the rich, the famous and the mildly in-bred. There she discovers a baroque world away from her London life as she takes on the mantle of Managing Editor. As she attempts to drag the magazine and its staff into the 21st century, she can't help wondering if it wouldn't have been easier staying in London and letting the body parts pile up. Meanwhile, Sir Jesper Donaldson, Tory's new boss, has family problems: a son who has no interest in following his father's footsteps, a wife slowly relieving the family estate of its heirlooms, an elderly father secretly engaged to his lap dancing day nurse and a twin brother planning a coup d'etat. Cover Story is set in the extravagant world of a national society magazine, with a Society Editor who can spot a pleb at one thousand feet, a Gardens Editor with a secret passion for writing gay porn and a Weddings Editor obsessed with her own nuptials. Sharp-witted humour and observations combine with strong characters and an inescapably modern take on life both inside and outside the British gentry. 3