Above: Helen Gurley Brown and John Searles
JOHN SEARLES is a New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of four novels. His books have been published in over a dozen languages and have been voted “Best of the Year” or top picks by Boston Globe, Entertainment Weekly, Salon and the American Library Association. A frequent contributor to The New York Times and The Washington Post, John was a top editor at Cosmopolitan for two decades, first hired by Helen Gurley Brown (fun photo- left). This novel is John’s love letter to women's magazines and to Helen. It is a book he has always wanted to write that is joyful, funny and full of charm.
An infectious and utterly charming fictionalization of the iconic Helen Gurley Brown’s early years at the helm of Cosmopolitan, and the intrepid group of women she took under her wing to create one of the most talked about magazines of all time.
In 1965, Helen Gurley Brown is fresh off the runaway success of her book Sex and the Single Girl, a revolutionary call to single women urging them not to rush into marriage on anyone’s timeline but their own, and, even more radically, to enjoy their sex lives, gloriously free of shame. Upon the book’s publication, half the country is outraged (her mother, for one, hates it), and the other half will follow her anywhere. Moved by the thousands of letters arriving at her doorstep from readers desperate for advice, she marches from one Manhattan magazine conglomerate to another, looking for a perch from which to dispense her unconventional wisdom. At her last stop, she finally gets her shot: just three issues to turn around the flailing magazine Cosmopolitan.
Helen quickly assembles a team of smart, savvy single girls up to the task. Soon, their lives become the stuff of magazine cover lines: the gorgeous Book Editor’s doomed romance with a man she didn’t know was married—and her bold idea for revenge. The (unofficial!) Sex Editor’s trip to soak in the world’s first champagne glass hot tub, which takes a very wrong turn. The Entertainment Editor’s clash with Joan Crawford and interview with a Park Avenue call girl that leads to unexpected revelations. Single Girls begins at the dawn of Helen’s storied tenure and journeys back to her youth, envisioning the devastations and people who forged her into a controversial legend.
Date: Friday, July 17th 2026
Location: Pine Lakes Country Club-5603 Granddaddy Dr, Myrtle Beach, SC 29577
Time: 10:45AM-1:00PM
Your Ticket Includes:
Guaranteed seating via our curated seating chart (no rushing for a spot).
An intimate talk and Q&A with John Searles.
A multi-course lunch, dessert, and beverages provided by Pine Lakes Country Club.
A dedicated window for personalized book signing and a brief meet-and-greet.
The Opportunity to purchase a signed copy of Single Girls at our event.
Refund Policy- Thank you for signing up for an event at Litchfield Books! Cards will be charged upon time of ticket purchase. We will refund your ticket, excluding our merchant banker convenience fee and credit card reversal fee. Cancellations are accepted up until seven days prior to the event date. If the cancellation is past the seven days you will not be offered a refund but you will be offered the signed copy of the event book.