Plum Sykes 2007. Some have seen Sykes' books as lying in natural succession to "Sex and the City", Candace Bushnell's column in the "New York Observer", which was the inspiration for a highly successful television series (HBO 1998–2004). Others remarked that the story was no less than the kind of offensive vapid claptrap you would expect from a dead-eyed rich girl. However, despite their satire, others have regarded them as too rooted in Sykes' own Park Avenue "set" to be reflective more generally of women's lives in post-9/11 Manhattan. Anita Loos' "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" (1925) is perhaps a closer, if incomparable, antecedent.
Timothy Gray Timothy Gray Timothy Gray (September 5, 1926 – March 17, 2007) was an American songwriter, author, singer and director, remembered for his partnership with Hugh Martin which produced "High Spirits", a musical based on Noël Coward's play, "Blithe Spirit". Gray, whose birth name was John Baker Gray, was born in Chicago and became a performer in vaudeville at the age of 16. He later performed on Broadway in musicals, including "As the Girls Go", and "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes", and then television, before becoming a writer and composer. Timothy Gray also wrote the score of the London show "Love From Judy"