Hollywood’s Hidden History Inspires ‘Chateau on Sunset’

Fans of historical fiction will know Australian author Natasha Lester for her many WWII-era novels, but her latest release Chateau on Sunset takes readers into 1950s Hollywood where glamorous facades hide unsettling truths for women of the age.

The story centres on 14-year-old Aria Jones, who is suddenly orphaned and sent to live with her reclusive aunt at the infamous Chateau Marmont. Aria witnesses all the ways people wheel and deal for fame, and the consequences of their silent deals.

“Aria is thrown into the middle of this seemingly wonderful, glamorous Hollywood hotel where stars and starlets lounge by the pools and life seems almost perfect,” Natasha told Hope 103.2.

“But underneath that perfect surface, Aria quickly discovers there are plenty of secrets and plenty of things going on that, as a 14-year-old, she doesn’t quite understand.”

One of the reasons Natasha wanted to set her 10th novel at Chateau Marmont was to highlight stories happening behind the celebrity limelight.

“Almost every star that you’ve ever heard of has stayed [at Chateau Marmont],” Natasha said.

“Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly, James Dean, Vivien Leigh – all those stars got up to various things, some of which are quite amusing. Bette Davis almost burnt the hotel down. Grace Kelly used to ask the switchboard operator for the room numbers of all the handsome men who checked into the hotel so she could go and introduce herself to them.

Hope 103.2 is proudly supported by

“But there were also other stories that were less fun, [and] it means some of the women involved in those stories have been lost to history.”

As Natasha researched the history, she found women who “suffered because they were ambitious and talented” and deserved to be understood in a new way.

“I realized some of the things that these talented, incredible, ambitious women were made to do in order to achieve the kind of stardom that they did.

“It was the genesis of what we discovered in the #MeToo movement, and I feel like that makes the book even more timely now because, in some ways, we’re in danger of losing a lot of that ground that we gained during the #MeToo movement.

“Chateau on Sunset serves as a reminder of how many women have fought so, so hard to get to where we are now, and that we owe it to them not to let anything backslide.

“Aria and her two friends come together and achieve some pretty remarkable things in the book. And hopefully that makes us realise that if we band together as women, we can achieve some pretty remarkable things too.”

Listen to the full conversation with Natasha Lester in the player above.

Feature image: Supplied (Canva Pro)