Jacqueline Susann a radical departure from the works which made her famous. During the 1970s, Susann had spoken of future works. They included a novel about brothers who have their show business start in vaudeville, to be called "The Comedy Twins"; a novel about a poetess, "The Heroine"; a continuation of the story of Neely O'Hara's sons; and her autobiography. Jacqueline Susann enjoyed the fame which her books brought. "Confrontational, sassy, [and] entertaining," she appeared frequently on television, especially on talk shows. When asked what Ethel Merman thought of "Valley of the Dolls", Susann responded, "We didn't speak before the book came
What a Carve Up! (novel) employing multiple narrative styles, different perspectives, movement between first- and third-person narrative voices and a highly fragmented timeline. Robert McCrum called it "the finest English satire from the 1980s - a memorable and explicit commentary on Thatcherism." In 2015, the author published a related novel set in the early 21st century, "Number 11". The latter novel is sometimes described as a sequel but elsewhere using other phrases such as a "sequel, of sorts." The relationship between the two books is suggested in the later novel (describing the relationship between two films, "What A Carve-Up!" and "What A Whopper", which are