Lesley Truffle - Writer

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The Black Eyed Blonde

November 16, 2022 by Lesley Truffle

  The Black Eyed Blonde   It seemed like a nice neighbourhood to have bad habits in. Raymond Chandler from The Big Sleep 1939.   I’ve been reading a Philip Marlowe detective novel that was not written by American author/screenwriter Raymond Chandler (1988-1959). I found the novel The Black Eyed Blonde engaging but somewhat disconcerting. … [Read more…]

Posted in: actors, books, films, movies, writers & creatives Tagged: American movies, American writer, Benjamin Black, detective film noir, film noir, Hollywood, Humphrey Bogart, John Banville, Lauren Bacall, Lesley Truffle, Lesley Truffle Writer, Morlowe, Philip Marlowe, Playback, private detective, Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep, The Black Eyed Blonde, The Long Goodbye, USA

Breakfast at Tiffany’s

October 21, 2022 by Lesley Truffle
Audrey Hepburn photo from film 'Breakfast at Tiffany's'

  Breakfast at Tiffany’s   All his prayers in the past had been simple concrete requests: God, give me a bicycle, a knife with seven blades, a box of oil paints. Only how, how, could you say something so indefinite, so meaningless as this: God, let me be loved. Other Voices by Truman Capote.   … [Read more…]

Posted in: actors, books, Film, films, Historical, Social Comment Tagged: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Capote, Capote novel, Capote novella, Holly Golightly, Hollywood, Hollywood actress, Hollywood legend, Hollywood Movie, M, Truman Capote

Colette

October 13, 2022 by Lesley Truffle

    Colette ‘People who are perfectly sane and happy don’t make good literature, alas.’                                                                                     Colette 1873-1954   Every so often I sneak back to classic literature for a brain clean. It’s wonderful to go back and savour books I really love. This time around I’m on a Colette reading jag. Colette was born … [Read more…]

Posted in: actors, art/theatre event, books, Historical, Mavericks & Renegades, writers & creatives Tagged: Chéri, Colette, France, French writer, Léa de Lonval, Lesley Truffle, Lesley Truffle Writer, Paris, Parisian, Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette

Marriage is the Tomb of Love

June 26, 2022 by Lesley Truffle

Marriage is the tomb of love   ‘The company … was far more likely to give pleasure than one made up of persons of quality, where gaiety freezes in the chill of etiquette.’ Casanova describing an evening spent with a group of actors.   Having just finished editing my fiction manuscript I’m taking some  time … [Read more…]

Posted in: books, Historical, Mavericks & Renegades, Social Comment, Travel Tagged: 18th century Europe, Brunelleschi, Casanova, Chevalier de Seingalt, Giacomo Casanova, History of My Life, Lesley Truffle, Lesley Truffle Writer

The Perils of Modern Life

March 24, 2022 by Lesley Truffle

  The Perils of Modern Life     I believe in censorship! If a picture of mine didn’t get an X-rating, I’d be insulted. Don’t forget dear, I invented censorship.                                      Mae West – actress, Hollywood legend and author of Sex (1926).   We live in strange times. 2022 has been marred by extreme climate … [Read more…]

Posted in: art/theatre event, books, Historical, Mavericks & Renegades, Playwright, Social Comment, writers & creatives Tagged: Edwardian Literature, Elinor Glyn, historical, Lesley Truffle, Lesley Truffle Writer, Mrs Elenor Glyn, Three Weeks, Three Weeks a novel

Publish and be damned

May 21, 2021 by Lesley Truffle

  Publish and be damned Well some people try to pick up girls And get called assholes This never happened to Pablo Picasso He could walk down your street And girls could not resist his stare and So Pablo Picasso was never called an asshole … Pablo Picasso lyrics by The Modern Lovers   The … [Read more…]

Posted in: books, Social Comment, writers & creatives Tagged: America, American writer, biography, Biography Phillip Roth, Blake Bailey, Cancel culture, Culture wars, Julie Szego, Lesley Truffle, Lesley Truffle Writer, Peter Carey, Phillip Roth, Portnoy's Complaint, Roth, Sean Kelly journalist, The plot against America, USA, Zadie Smith

Cleopatra’s Erotic Vagrancy

April 21, 2021 by Lesley Truffle

  Cleopatra’s Erotic Vagrancy   Cleopatra V11 – born around 69 BC – was an object of fascination and gossip even in her own time. She was a child goddess who was married off to her brother and became Egypt’s queen at eighteen. After many poisonings, killings, plot twists and turns, Cleopatra went on to … [Read more…]

Posted in: books, Historical, Mavericks & Renegades, Observations, Social Comment, writers & creatives Tagged: 20th Century Fox, Caesar, Cleopatra, Cleopatra A Life, Cleopatra V11, Elizabeth Taylor, Erotic, Famous films, Fox Studios, Lesley Truffle, Lesley Truffle Writer, Liz Taylor, Marcus Antonius, Mark Anthony, Richard Burton, Stacy Schiff, The Vatican, Theda Bara

My Favourite Horror Child

February 25, 2021 by Lesley Truffle

  My Favourite Horror Child   Eloise and I go way back. At about seven I discovered six-year-old Eloise. She was parent-free, running amuck in the Plaza New York with her nanny, a pug and a turtle. I didn’t find it strange that Eloise exercised with champagne bottles, as my sister and I had hidden … [Read more…]

Posted in: books, Historical, Mavericks & Renegades, Social Comment, writers & creatives Tagged: Eloise, Eloise in Paris, France, French, Hilary Knight, Kay Thompson, Lesley Truffle, Lesley Truffle Writer, The Plaza Hotel

25 Cats and One Blue Pussy

February 8, 2021 by Lesley Truffle

  25 Cats Named Sam And One Blue Pussy   The reason I hate regular underwear – and socks, too – is that if you send twenty pairs of shorts and twenty pairs of socks to the laundromat, you always only get nineteen back. Even when I wash them myself, I get nineteen back. The more I think about … [Read more…]

Posted in: animals, artists, books, Fashion, Mavericks & Renegades, Social Comment Tagged: 25 Cats name Sam and one Blue Pussy, Andy Warhol, Cat, Cats, Cats Named Sam and One Blue Pussy, Elizbeth Taylor, Julia Warhola, Liz Taylor, Pop Art, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol, Warhol

Book Dreaming

September 24, 2020 by Lesley Truffle

Book Dreaming I’ve often been asked – what are the books that meant a lot to me growing up. This is a difficult question because there are so many books I love. And I often revisit books, usually classics, I already know are going to transport me. In winter there’s pleasure to be had in … [Read more…]

Posted in: books, Mavericks & Renegades, Observations, Social Comment, writers & creatives Tagged: Ada, Casanova, Eloise, Eloise in Paris, Emily Brontë, Giacomo Casanova, History of My Life, Kay Thompson, Lesley Truffle, Lolita, Nabokov, Vladamir Nabokov, Wuthering Heights

Devilish Desires

June 11, 2020 by Lesley Truffle

Dorian Gray’s Devilish Desires   ‘The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.’ The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde   In Oscar Wilde’s novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray the characters throw themselves around dramatically and rarely ever sit quietly. They fling themselves at the furniture with … [Read more…]

Posted in: books, Fashion, Historical, Mavericks & Renegades, Social Comment, writers & creatives Tagged: British playwrights, British writer, Dorian Gray, gothic fiction, gothic fiction books, Lesley Truffle, Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde, Oscar Wilde, playwright, poet, poets, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde

I Want That Cake

April 20, 2020 by Lesley Truffle

I Want That Cake ‘Let there be no shame on me tonight!’ Prince Wenzel von Metternich 1832   The narrator of my novel, The Scandalous Life of Sasha Torte, was named in honour of a famous cake. Sasha Torte is a world-class Tasmanian pastry chef and she establishes her magnificent cake emporium in Wolfftown, a fictional … [Read more…]

Posted in: books, cakes and cooking, Historical, Mavericks & Renegades, Social Comment Tagged: Anna Maria Sacher, cake, cakes, Eduard Sacher, Franz Sacher, Hotel Sacher, Lesley Truffle, Sachertorte, Sasher Torte, The Scandalous Life of Sasha Torte

Everything is F*cked

December 12, 2019 by Lesley Truffle

  Everything is Fucked   ‘Look, it may be that you came to this book looking for some sort of hope … I am sorry. I don’t have that kind of answer for you. Nobody does.’                                             Mark Manson, Everything is F*cked A Book About Hope   Mark Manson’s first self-published book in 2011 was … [Read more…]

Posted in: books, current news, Observations, Psychology, Social Comment, writers & creatives Tagged: Abraham Maslow, America, Elon Musk, Everything is f*cked, Everything is F*cked A Book About Hope, Everything is fucked, Everything is Fucked A Book About Hope, Mark Manson, Maslow, Maslow's Hierachy of Needs, Models Attract Women Through Honesty, Self-help books, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, The subtle art of not giving a fuck, USA

Jack’s Story

November 21, 2019 by Lesley Truffle

  Jack’s Story Jack Charles – Aboriginal Elder, film and stage actor, potter, indigenous activist and former cat burglar – is a brilliant storyteller. His gift of writing from the heart, provided him with cachet and respect when imprisoned. He would sit down with illiterate inmates, discuss what was required and then pen deeply felt … [Read more…]

Posted in: books, Film, Observations, Social Comment, Writers & Readers Events Tagged: Aboriginal Elder, actor, Australia, Australian, biography, First Nations Family, human rights issues, Indigenous activist, Indigenous children, Jack Charles, Jack Charles vs The Crown, Melbourne, screen actor, stage actor, Stolen Children, Stolen Generations

She Purred Like a Tiger

November 7, 2019 by Lesley Truffle

She Purred Like a Tiger In 1903 Mrs Elinor Glyn published, Three Weeks. These days the novel is considered a bizarre but fairly tame read, but back then it was the Edwardians version of Fifty Shades of Grey and sold about 2 million copies. In the opening pages of my novel, The Scandalous Life of … [Read more…]

Posted in: books, Historical, Mavericks & Renegades, Social Comment, writers & creatives Tagged: Edwardian Literature, Edwardians, Elinor Glyn, historical, The Scandalous Life of Sasha Torte, Three Weeks, Three Weeks a novel, Tiger skins

Wuthering Heights

September 19, 2019 by Lesley Truffle

   ‘He is more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.’ Catherine defining her obsession with Heathcliff. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte.   I’ve been sneaking back to the classics on those chilly nights when all you want to do after dinner is curl up with … [Read more…]

Posted in: books, Film, Psychology, Social Comment, writers & creatives Tagged: Branwell Bronte, Catherine Earnshaw, Cathy and Heathcliff, Charlotte Bronte, Emily Brontë, Heathcliff, Wuthering Heights

The Leopard

August 8, 2019 by Lesley Truffle

  THE LEOPARD One of the most astonishing things about the novel, The Leopard  is that it was initially rejected by major publishing houses. Yet when it was finally published in 1958, it was acknowledged to be a masterpiece. Unfortunately by this time the author, Giuseppe di Lampedusa had died at the age of sixty … [Read more…]

Posted in: books, Film, Historical, Mavericks & Renegades, Social Comment, writers & creatives Tagged: Alain Delon, Burt Lancaster, Claudia Cardinale, films, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, Ill Gattopardo, Italian Literature, Italy, Lampedusa, Luchino Visconti, mid twentieth century literature, movies, Sicily, The Leopard, Viconte

Ma Kelly’s Boy

June 15, 2019 by Lesley Truffle

Ma Kelly’s Boy   ‘Don’t be frightened. Nothing will happen to you. I have a mother of my own.’                      Ned Kelly to Anne Calvert while robbing the National Bank at Euroa.   On November 11 1880, Edward ‘Ned’ Kelly was hanged for murder at Melbourne Goal. A reporter at the time claimed that Mrs … [Read more…]

Posted in: books, Mavericks & Renegades, Melbourne, writers & creatives Tagged: Charles Nettleton, Edward 'Ned' Kelly, Ellen Quinn, Grantlee Kieza, Ireland, Irish Catholics, Kelly, Lesley Truffle, Melbourne, Melbourne Goal, Mrs Ellen Kelly, Mrs Kelly, Ned Kelly, outlaw

The Man in the Moon

June 12, 2019 by Lesley Truffle

  The Man in the Moon Half a century ago Neil Armstrong and Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin walked on the moon. On July 20 2019 their moon landing of July 1969 will be celebrated worldwide. Given that there’s no atmosphere on the moon, it’s possible that Armstrong and Aldrin’s footsteps may still visible on the moon’s … [Read more…]

Posted in: art/theatre event, books, Film, Mavericks & Renegades, Social Comment, writers & creatives Tagged: A Trip to the Moon, American astronaut, astronaut, Buzz Aldrin, Coleridge, Edwin Aldrin, film, French film, French filmaker, Georges Méliès, Le Voyage Dans La Lune, Lesley Truffle, Méliès, moon landing, movies, NASA, Neil Armstrong, The First Men on the Moon., The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

On Being Fabulous

February 20, 2019 by Lesley Truffle

    On Being Fabulous   Two nights ago I attended Madison Moore’s performative presentation at the National Art Gallery, Melbourne. Madison began his lecture dressed casually in gym gear but while talking about his influences growing up and how it felt to be marginalised, he slowly began a transformation. Madison began by cutting and … [Read more…]

Posted in: art/theatre event, books, Fashion, Mavericks & Renegades, Social Comment, Writers & Readers Events Tagged: Dr Madison Moore, Fabulous The Rise of the Beautiful Eccentric, Fabulousness, Madison Moore, Prince

We all dress for Bill

January 24, 2019 by Lesley Truffle

We all dress for Bill   I never met the New York Times photographer William J. Cunningham but he was definitely one of my most favourite people. Wearing his trademark blue French workman’s jacket, Bill Cunningham peddled around New York on his bicycle, taking photographs of street fashion for his On the Street column. Bill’s … [Read more…]

Posted in: books, Fashion, Social Comment, Uptown Downtown, writers & creatives Tagged: Bill Cunningham, Evening Hours, Fashion Climbing, hat designer, mid-century, New York, New York Life, New York Times, On the Street, photography, street fashion, street photography, William J

Mirka’s Story

September 28, 2018 by Lesley Truffle

  Mirka Mora 1928-2018 ‘Every time you show your work, you really show your soul.’   Mirka I never met Mirka Mora, but she became one of my most favourite people. I only know Mirka through her paintings and her wonderful autobiography, Wicked but Virtuous; My Life. Whenever I stop to look at Mirka’s murals – they … [Read more…]

Posted in: art/theatre event, books, Mavericks & Renegades, Melbourne, Social Comment, writers & creatives Tagged: Auschwitz, Carrillo Gantner, Georges Mora, Lesley Truffle, Marcel Marceau, Melbourne, Mirka Mora, Monsieur Mayonnaise, Nazis, Philippe Mora, Wicked but Virtuous

Home Sweet Home

September 10, 2018 by Lesley Truffle

  Home Sweet Home   One of the questions I’ve often been asked is – how autobiographical is The Scandalous Life of Sasha Torte? Given that Sasha Torte is sabotaged by abusive and neglectful parenting, escalating depression and a later addiction to opium, laudanum, champagne, piratical men and hard liquor, the question becomes loaded and … [Read more…]

Posted in: books, Observations, Psychology, Social Comment, Television series, writers & creatives Tagged: At Last, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dr Drew Pinsky, Drew Pinskey, Edward St Aubyn, Lesley Truffle, Patrick Melrose, The Melrose Family, The Scandalous Life of Sasha Torte

A Room of One’s Own and other Catastrophes

August 26, 2018 by Lesley Truffle

  In a recent interview journalist and former editor, Michael Gawenda, said of his son Husky Gawenda, ‘He can spend a lot of time by himself in his room. If you’re going to be a writer you have to be lonely in some way.’ (from ‘The Two of Us’. The AGE Good Weekend, 11August  2018). … [Read more…]

Posted in: books, Mavericks & Renegades, Observations, Psychology, writers & creatives Tagged: Emily Brontë, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jeffrey Meyers, Lesley Truffle, Michael Gawenda, Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, Virginia Woolf, Wuthering Heights

The Mad Boy

April 20, 2018 by Lesley Truffle

  Lord Gerald Berners was a talented musician and painter. He also wrote for the stage and his impressionistic paintings continue to sell well today (that’s Gerald in the photograph above). He converted Faringdon House, in Oxfordshire England, into a luxurious country mansion that soon had England’s fashion set vying for a weekend invitation. Exquisite … [Read more…]

Posted in: animals, art/theatre event, books, Mavericks & Renegades Tagged: Cecil Beaton, Gerald Berners, Lesley Truffle, Lord Berners, Robert Heber Percy, Sofka Zinovieff
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