Magazine editors the world over will be examining Tina Brown’s The Vanity Fair Diaries 1983-1992 (Weidenfeld & Nicolson; £25) to see if there are any tips the y can pick up from the English woman who transformed the fortunes of the American glossy, boosting its monthly circulation from 200,000 to a million.

As an undergraduate at Oxford, Brown began by writing freelance pieces for The Sunday Times and began an affair in 1977 with the paper’s legendary editor, Harry Evans, 22 years her senior. She married him in 1981 after his divorce came through.

After an impressive stint as editor of Tatler in the UK, Brown was headhunted to shift to New York to take over Vanity Fair at the age of only 29. 

She tells of attending umpteen glitzy parties in New York and Los Angeles and chasing Hollywood stars (Warren Beatty, Woody Allen, Richard Gere, Kevin Costner) plus other American (Henry Kissinger, Donald and Ivanka Trump) and British A-listers (Mick Jagger, Michael Caine).

Her most spectacular success came in August 1991 when she put a heavily pregnant and naked Demi Moore on the cover.

This proved to be an enduring image that launched a thousand copycat baby bumps all over the world.

“When (photographer) Annie (Leibovitz) and I first discussed doing Demi, I thought how great it would be to show her pregnant instead of doing the normal thing with stars who are over three months gone and cheat the cover with a head shot or some other disguise,” she writes. “But being Annie, she went one better. She did Demi in profile, yes, but also…naked!”

“Annie was the persuasive genius who .. got Demi to agree to make this private picture public,” Brown acknowledges. “But kudos to Demi too for her bravery and willingness to go out on the edge.”

The sell-out issue received global coverage and sealed Brown’s status as “the best magazine editor of her generation”. 
Another very successful cover featuring Ronald and Nancy Reagan had come in June 1985, with the President and First Lady dancing in evening dress for the shoot. 

After Vanity Fair, Brown went on to edit The New Yorker from 1992-98 but Talk magazine, which she set up with Harvey Weinstein, then of Miramax Studio, proved an expensive flop and closed after two years. Brown, now 64, recently described the movie mogul as “vile”.