21 Questions With… Author and Socialite Plum Sykes

Plum Sykes — The New York Times best-selling author of Bergdorf Blondes, socialite and former Voguette — just released a new novel, Party Girls Die in Pearls. The whodunit story is a Clueless meets Agatha Christie murder mystery set at Oxford University in the 1980s. Basically, it’s exactly the kind of engrossing, fun read you should pack in your beach bag this summer. It’s trite to make such a comparison, but Plum truly is a real-life Carrie Bradshaw. Curious to find out more, we spoke with the English-born former Alexander McQueen muse and asked her our quickfire questions.

1. My morning routine consists of… walking my two daughters to school in London along Holland Park Avenue, then going to my office in Notting Hill.
2. My most treasured item is… my pearls from Granny Goad.
3. If my days had one extra hour… I’d chat with my girls for even longer each day.
4. If you looked in my fridge you’d find… goat’s curd. I eat it with everything. It’s super healthy.
5. My go-to beauty product is… Bobbi Brown Tinted Moisturizer. I wear it every day.
6. When I’m looking to get inspired… I do lots of research.
7. One thing people don’t know about working at Vogue… is that it’s like a second family for all of us Voguettes.
8. My writing routine consists of… writing every morning 10:00 a.m. till 12:45 p.m. I write unless I am researching.
9. The best place I’ve ever traveled is… Marrakesh.
10. The last thing I googled was… how to find Ladurée in Beverly Hills.
11. My go-to designers are… Alexander McQueen, Vince and Madewell.
12. The best advice I’ve ever received was… this too shall pass.
13. I’m dying to splurge on… Chanel ballet flats.
14. When it comes to wellness… I stick with riding, Pilates, no alcohol and no coffee.
15. My secret talent is… playing piano.
16. My guilty pleasure is… Green & Black’s Dark Chocolate.
17. If I could tell my younger self one thing, it would be… that there’s no rush to solve all your problems in a day.
18. If you looked at my desktop you’d see… yellow legal pads, Diptyque candle, MacBook Air, Montblanc fountain pen and brown ink.
19. My biggest fear is… the future!
20. My biggest pet peeve is… littering.
21. One thing I wish people knew about me is… I can bake a mean shortbread.