Diva dogs, cake sniffing and celebrity tantrums - Angela Clarke saw it all during her ten years working in the fashion industry.

She will be taking you on a ”backstage ride” through the crazy and glamorous world of models and designers as part of the St Albans Fashion Week.

The author, who grew up in Watford, will be reading extracts from her book Confessions of a Fashionista, which spills the beans on what it is really like to work in the industry.

She says: ”It tells how I got into fashion, how I survived, got into a mess and got out of the industry.

”I don’t have a traditional fashion background. I was born in Watford and went to the local comprehensive. I had a really bad break-up after university and in a desperate attempt to prove to my ex how much of a mistake he’d made I decided to work in Harrods because it seemed posh.”

The former Roundwood Park School pupil was captivated by how magical and glamorous her new life was and how ”nice” everyone seemed (including Alexander McQueen, who she met in the back of a taxi) and eventually became an agent, helping produce fashion shows and shoots.

”I saw so many crazy things,” she says. ”The one no one can ever believe is the cake sniffers. I worked with these ladies who used to sniff cake instead of eating it.

”And there was Binky the devil dog who belonged to a top photographer and was so spoilt she got flown first-class in her own seat around the world.”

She also hung out with celebrities such as Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell and Vivienne Westwood.

So what made her hang up her fabulous fashion hat?

”I lost myself up my own Spanx-encased bottom and started to value my expensive handbags more than my friends and family,” says Angela.

”The industry is full of creative, energetic people who are down to earth and passionate about what they do and don’t let it change them, but I wasn’t strong enough to resist the lure and spent lots of money on looking the part.”

But despite this Angela says if she could reverse the years she would definitely do it all again.