Living the Mad lifestyle

They say Jane Maas is like Peggy Olson, the secretary-turned-copywriter from the television series Mad Men.

Her memoir, Mad Women: The Other Side of Life on Madison Avenue in the ’60s and Beyond, certainly paints a picture of a world like that from the popular TV show.

“I think Mad Men hits the mark in many ways and misses it in many ways,” she says. “It’s absolutely accurate in terms of the way we looked and dressed. Nobody realises all the layers that women wore in those days. Philip Roth, the novelist, is a classmate of mine from Bucknell University. I sent him a copy of the manuscript and he said, ‘Oh, I’d forgotten about slips — slips were so sexy. Undressing a woman who was wearing a slip was so wonderful.’