ruthbrandon.co.ukRuth Brandon: historian, biographer and novelist.

Ruth Brandon is a historian, biographer and novelist.

In 2011, she will be publishing a new book, Ugly Beauty: Helena Rubinstein, L’Oreal and the Blemished History of Looking Good. This centres on an extraordinary scandal, or series of scandals, that arose when L’Oréal, whose French founder, Eugène Schueller, had been a leading Nazi collaborator, took over Helena Rubinstein, whose founder had been Jewish. Rubinstein and Schueller were very different in their views of business in general and the beauty business in particular. Ugly Beauty examines the consequences of L’Oréal’s victory for a business that today impinges on almost all our lives, and intimately affects the way we think of ourselves.

She is also hoping to publish another Reggie Lee book, called The Authentication Committee.

Ruth Brandon talks about her latest book, Ugly Beauty.

Film by Randall Wright