We all want a best friend like Nora Ephron: frank but forgiving, wry but caring, someone who knows not only what to say but how to say it.

Don’t know what to wear?
‘Black matches with everything, especially black.’

Trouble in love?
‘You can never know the truth of anyone’s marriage, including your own.’

Searching for a new belief system?
‘My religion is Get Over It.’

Here is the best of Nora for every season of life, across her storied career, from her early days in the news media to her cult classic novel, to her unexpected turn as a legendary Hollywood writer. Nora saw it all, and with a wicked sense of humour and shrewd intellect, she made it all deliciously funny.

Filled with unforgettable lines, this is a celebration of Nora’s singular wit and generosity – start at the beginning or flip to any page for instant delight.

Praise for Nora Ephron:

‘Triggered me to write my own book, and ask myself questions about who I was, and what kind of woman I am and how the world has shaped me.’ LILY ALLEN

‘I am only one of millions of women who will miss Nora’s voice.’ LENA DUNHAM

‘Funny, knowing and smart.’ INDIA KNIGHT

‘Nobody does it funnier.’ MAUREEN LIPMAN

‘I kept a copy of Nora Ephron’s Heartburn next to me as a reminder of how to be funny and truthful, and all I ended up doing was ignoring my writing and rereading Heartburn’ AMY POEHLER

Seven months into her pregnancy, Rachel discovers that her husband is in love with another woman. The fact that this woman has a ‘neck as long as an arm and a nose as long as a thumb’ is no consolation. Food sometimes is, though, since Rachel is a cookery writer, and between trying to win Mark back and wishing him dead, she offers us some of her favourite recipes. Heartburn is a roller coaster of love, betrayal, loss and most satisfyingly revenge.

This is Nora Ephron’s (screenwriter of When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle) roman a clef: ‘I always thought during the pain of the marriage that one day it would make a funny book,’ she once said. And it is!

‘It is snortingly funny in its depiction of the death throes of a relationship. And it bursts with recipes. What more could you ask for?’ ADAM KAY

PART OF THE VIRAGO DESIGNER COLLECTION. COVER FEATURES TEXTILE DESIGN BY ELZA SUNDERLAND

‘The perfect introduction to the iconic writer’ STYLIST

INCLUDING:

* Nora’s much-loved essays on everything from friendship to feminism to journalism

* Extracts from her bestselling novel Heartburn

* Scenes from her hilarious screenplay for When Harry Met Sally

* Unparalleled advice about friends, lovers, divorces, desserts and black turtleneck sweaters

‘It’s got a little bit of everything, from witty essays on feminism, beauty, and ageing to profiles of empowering female figures’ ELLE

*PRAISE FOR NORA EPHRON*

‘So bold and so vulnerable at the same time. I don’t know how she did it’ PHOEBE WALLER-BRIDGE

‘Nora’s exacting, precise, didactic, tried-and-tested, sophisticated-woman-wearing-all-black wisdom is a comfort and a relief’ DOLLY ALDERTON

‘Nora Ephron is the funniest, cleverest, wisest friend you could have’ NIGELLA LAWSON

‘I am only the one of millions of women who will miss Nora’s voice’ LENA DUNHAM

Now with an introduction from Dolly Alderton, author of Everything I Know About Love, revealing how a new generation of women can take inspiration from Nora’s sharp wit and wisdom about life.

* Never marry a man you wouldn’t want to be divorced from.

* If the shoe doesn’t fit in the shoe store, it’s never going to fit.

* When your children are teenagers, it’s important to have a dog so that someone in the house is happy to see you.

* If only one third of your clothes are mistakes, you’re ahead of the game.

* Anything you think is wrong with your body at the age of thirty-five you will be nostalgic for by the age of forty-five.
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‘I give this as a present more than other book. I buy it for people so often that I’ve been known to give girlfriends two copies, one birthday after another’ – Dolly Alderton
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‘I am only one of millions of women who will miss Nora’s voice’ Lena Dunham

‘Oh how I loved Nora Ephron’ Nigella Lawson

‘Funny, knowing and smart’ India Knight

‘The book that most influenced me’ Lily Allen

‘Nora’s exacting, precise, didactic, tried-and-tested, sophisticated-woman-wearing-all-black wisdom is a comfort and a relief’ Dolly Alderton

‘She is wit without cynicism, the ultimate romantic’ GAIL COLLINS, NEW YORK TIMES

Seven months into her pregnancy, Rachel discovers that her husband is in love with another woman. The fact that this woman has a ‘neck as long as an arm and a nose as long as a thumb’ is no consolation. Food sometimes is, though, since Rachel is a cookery writer, and between trying to win Mark back and wishing him dead, she offers us some of her favourite recipes. Heartburn is a roller coaster of love, betrayal, loss and most satisfyingly revenge.

This is Nora Ephron’s (screenwriter of When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle) roman à clef: ‘I always thought during the pain of the marriage that one day it would make a funny book,’ she once said – And it is!

Books included in the VMC fortieth anniversary series include: Frost in May by Antonia White; The Collected Stories of Grace Paley; Fire from Heaven by Mary Renault; The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter; The Weather in the Streets by Rosamond Lehmann; Deep Water by Patricia Highsmith; The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West; Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston; Heartburn by Nora Ephron; The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy; Memento Mori by Muriel Spark; A View of the Harbour by Elizabeth Taylor; and Faces in the Water by Janet Frame