Dark glasses - Tony Edwards

Lizzie Beckman craves fame at any price but when her idea for a fake but very public suicide is totally ignored by the press, the 20 year old ‘wannabe’ reluctantly turns to the publicity consultant who regularly grabs the headlines for her father’s fashion business. Toby Stone, a Knightsbridge PR man with a well-deserved reputation for master-minding some of the most original and creative press publicity stunts either side of the new millennium, launches Lizzie as an expert at doing what she does best – nothing – and provides her with a unique media hook for a sponsored fund-raising project. And ‘Doing Nothing for Charity’ – remaining motionless for an agreed period – puts her firmly in the frame for national newspaper and TV coverage.Lizzie’s supportive but bewildered boyfriend Barry Gammon, a chartered accountant who reminds himself to propose to her on the last day of the month when the invoices go out, wants her to forget about fame and settle down with him. But Toby Stone is giving serious consideration to breaking a cardinal professional rule; the one about not sleeping with clients.As Lizzie Beckman’s celebrity status grows and the fabricated hype and phoney flim-flam of the PR machine moves into top gear, she slowly comes to terms with a new and unexpected talent, which she puts to good use as one of the ‘guests’ at ‘The Manor’, a reality TV show set in a haunted house.But when Toby Stone decides to orchestrate her mysterious disappearance, after some madcap schemes involving the dazzling Stuart de Lacy and a hot air balloon, Lizzie confronts some important decisions about whether fame and celebrity are quite as important as she’d once dared to imagine.