20 cities, in 4 time zones, in 4 weeks: it's been an action packed August for 'The Replacement Girl'.

It's been quite a while since my last post - largely because, for the last month, I've been in the US to finish researching 'The Replacement Girl'. Starting and finishing in New York, the trip took in Connecticut, Washington DC, Maryland, West Virginia, Oregon, California, New Mexico, Texas and Kansas. The schedule was - to say the least - action-packed, dashing from coast to coast via 12 flights, 9 train rides, and 5 Greyhounds. But along the way I got to see thousands of pages of archive material and undiscovered images, stored everywhere from the Library of Congress to a Long Island boathouse. And I was finally able to interview many of the photographers, editors, writers, agents and models who shaped fashion photography in the Fifties, and to visit the locations where their lives and careers played out.

But now I'm back in not-so-sunny-anymore London, adjusting to changes in temperature and time zone - and most importantly of all, with the materials for the book's final chapter.