If you mixed Jacqueline Susann’s Valley of the Dolls with The New York Post‘s Page Six, threw in a little Jackie Collins and a sprinkle of Candace Bushnell, you might get something close to former celeb PR agent and gossip chronicler Rob Shuter’s debut novel, It Started With a Whisper: A Novel Based on a Thousand Stories.
The book centers on four gossip columnists — one male, James, and three women — drawn from Shuter’s years in the trade, including his stint as a host on VH1’s The Gossip Table. Is James based on Shuter himself? “Sure,” he laughs. “He’s me … on a really good day, braver, sharper, slightly more reckless. I’m far more cautious in real life — but the foundation’s true. A working-class kid from Birmingham, somehow ending up on American television? That part still feels surreal.”
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