Workhorse by Caroline Palmer

GOOD BREEDING IS EVERYTHING.

‘Razor-sharp and deliciously wry’ COCO MELLORS

‘Funny, tender, but with so many thrillingly dark moments. OBSESSED’ HEATHER DARWENT

An astonishing portrait of a city on the brink of a dizzying new era and a story about a young woman who will do anything to infiltrate the rarefied world of New York’s fashion elite.

New York City, 2001.

Editorial Assistant Clodagh “Clo” Harmon wants nothing more than to rise through the ranks at the world’s most prestigious fashion magazine. But there’s just one problem: she doesn’t have the right pedigree. Clo is a ‘workhorse’ in a world of beautiful, wealthy, impossibly well-connected ‘show horses’ and it seems that her fortunes will never change. That is until Clo meets Harry Wood, a reporter with visions of his own media empire and the person who might be Clo’s ally in gaming the system…or is he the only thing standing between Clo and her rightful place at the top?

Clo begins to wade across boundaries, taking ever greater and more dangerous risks to become the Important Person she wants to be. But who is Clo under all the borrowed designer clothes and studied manners? And who are we if we share her desires?

As wickedly funny as it is darkly unsettling, Workhorse is an astonishing story of envy and ambition, set against the glamour and privilege of media and high society in New York at its height.

About the Author: Caroline Palmer spent seven years as the Editor of Vogue.com and was subsequently the Director of Editorial, Video, and Social Media at Amazon Fashion. She is now an advisor at a venture firm and start-up accelerator in New York, as well as consulting with fashion, technology and beauty brands. She sits on the Foundation Board at FIT and is the chairperson of the fashion department advisory council at the University of Delaware. She has also worked at the New York Times, Real Simple, Seventeen magazine, Vogue and the Public Theatre.

14 Oct 2025
 

Workhorse by Caroline Palmer ISBN 9780008732219