Iris Storm, femme fatale, races around London and Europe in her yellow Hispano-Suiza surrounded by romantic intrigue, but beneath the glamour she is destined to be a tragic heroine. The success of the novel when it was first published in 1924 let to its adaptation for the screen, with Greta Garbo starring as Iris Storm.

A review of A Woman of Affairs, the film adaptation of The Green Hat starring Greta Garbo and John Gilbert taken from The Spectator, November 24 1928.


‘The essence of its period... a riveting story.’ Anthony Lejeune

Michael Arlen - Michael Arlen was born in Bulgaria in 1895 of Armenian parents. He changed his name from Dikran Konyounmdjian in 1922 and became a naturalised British subject. After being educated at Malvern College he wrote two novels which met with little attention. He achieved fame with the publication of The Green Hat in 1924.Driving around London in an enormous yellow Rolls Royce, slim, well-dressed and impeccably mannered, he was very like the characters in his novels. He lived in Cannes until the outbreak of the Second World War, and then moved to New York where he died in 1956.

Michael Arlen on the cover of TIME Magazine from Monday May 02 1927.

An article entitled ‘Mayfairian’ focusing on Arlen and taken from the same edition.



Kirsty Gunn - Kirsty Gunn is the author of five novels, The Boy and the Sea, Featherstone, Rain, The Keepsake and This Place You Return to Is Home, and a collection of writing and poems, 44 Things. She lives with her family in London and Scotland.

Please visit British Council Contemporary Writers for more details about Kirsty Gunn.

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By the same author or foreword writer:
Potiki By Patricia Grace;  Kirsty Gunn (Introduction)
These Charming People By Michael Arlen;  Emma Tennant (Foreword)