Shelagh Rogers interviewed many fabulous authors this past season on The Next Chapter. Every now and then, she would have a conversation so compelling, juicy, riveting or fascinating that it deserved more space than the radio show could allow. So, The Next Chapter offered up extended versions of those conversations as special webisodes and podcasts.

Shelagh's Summer Special this week is her conversation with fashion icon and author Jeanne Beker. Jeanne stopped by The Next Chapter this season to discuss her most recent book, Finding Myself in Fashion and she and Shelagh had such a great time chatting that we had to share the complete interview with you.

You can hear The Next Chapter on CBC Radio One every Monday at 1 p.m. and Saturday at 4 p.m. (a half hour later in Newfoundland).

Jeanne Beker is one of a kind. She blazed the trail for fashion journalism in Canada 25 years ago and shows no signs of leaving the catwalks any time soon. After starting out as a radio host for CBC in 1975, she held various jobs in media, including a successful stint as the host of Citytv's The New Music, before breaking boundaries for fashion in 1985 by helping develop Fashion Television.

More than two decades later, this television host, writer, fashion expert, and reality TV show judge is busier than ever. Jeanne is a woman with ambition, drive, chutzpah and a wide-open heart, and that all comes through in her most recent book, Finding Myself in Fashion.

Finding Myself in Fashion isn't Beker's first memoir. A decade ago, she released Jeanne Unbottled. But so much had happened both in fashion and in her personal life in the past 10 years that Jeanne felt it was time to pull out some paper, a pen and tell more stories. "It was time to take stock," Jeanne told Shelagh Rogers in a recent interview. "It was important for me to sit back and really examine...how far I'd come and just some of the lessons that have been really hard to learn but I will never forget."

As with everything Jeanne does, she threw herself into the project and the result is a revealing and intimate look at the private life of one of Canada's most public personalities. "I don't think it's worth doing unless you're going to do that," she said. "If you can't be honest, what's it all about?"