Join local author Tonya Walker to discuss her new historical fiction novel, "Slim and The Notorious Mrs. Churchill."

In the final golden years of post-war glamour, 1958 New York is a city intoxicated by reinvention—and no one reinvents herself better than Slim Hayward. Raised on grit and charm more than pedigree, Slim claws her way into the upper echelons of society with poise sharp enough to cut glass. There she meets the luminous Mrs. Pamela Churchill—heiress, social strategist, and woman of exquisite influence. Together they become the twin obsessions of Manhattan: photographed, adored, and whispered about in equal measure.

But no throne fits two queens.

Paris shimmers across the ocean—a city of artists, patrons, secrets, and escape—and when Slim and Mrs. Churchill arrive in the same season, alliances fray. Desire and ambition blur. And one explosive betrayal reveals how fragile beauty and status truly are.

Slim and the Notorious Mrs. Churchill is a story of envy and intimacy, fame and reinvention, of women punished for wanting power and punished again for possessing it. In a world that worships perfection, two socialites learn that survival belongs not to the prettiest, but to the one who writes the narrative first.

Tonya Walker writes historical fiction and literary short stories that explore the private tensions beneath glamour, memory, and social power. Her work has appeared in The Danforth Review and The Cunningham Short Stories Collection, and she received an Honorable Mention from the Big Apple Film Festival. Walker is the author of the forthcoming novel, “Slim and the Notorious Mrs. Churchill,” set among the glittering rivalries of 1950s New York and Paris, and of several short stories, including “Dementia,” which examines caregiving and identity. A dual Canadian-American, she lives in the United States and spends part of each year in Toronto.

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