How to Lose Friends & Alienate People (memoir) to sue him) and "Vanity Fair"'s own Graydon Carter. Young also describes awkward run-ins with American celebrities including Nathan Lane, Mel Gibson and Diana Ross. Throughout the book, Young describes being tormented by his friend "Alex de Silva" (speculated to be Sacha Gervasi), a former colleague of Young's who manages to succeed in America in every way that Young does not. The title of Young's book is a parody of the title of Dale Carnegie's 1937 perennial bestseller, "How to Win Friends and Influence People"; a parody by Irving Tressler titled "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People" was also
The Hare and many friends version appearing in a collection of Aesop's Fables, Gay's original authorship has gradually become forgotten. The story appeared as the final poem in the book of fables written by John Gay at the royal suggestion for the instruction of Prince William, Duke of Cumberland. Soon after its publication in 1727, Gay's hopes of Court preferment were disappointed and the story was put about by his friends that the fable had a personal application. In particular, Jonathan Swift wrote how "Gay, the Hare with many friends, /Twice seven long years at court attends,” only to be let down. Though the fable's