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…]
Freud’s Cigar ‘Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.’ Dr Sigmund Freud 1856 -1939. Freud was a heavy cigar smoker and supposedly said, ‘Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar’. Many of his theories relate to uncontrolled libido and wild sexual impulses. Accordingly, his statement probably means a phallic-shaped object such as a cigar, doesn’t … [Read more…]
The Addams Family House ‘They’re creepy and they’re kooky Mysterious and spooky They’re all together ooky The Addams family Their house is a museum When people come to see ’em They really are a scream The Addams family…’ The Addams Family theme song I was born in London but raised in Australia by English … [Read more…]
There goes the neighbourhood I often cross the river and sneak back to my old neighbourhood. Fitzroy has become increasingly gentrified; old houses have been tizzied up and sold for exceedingly high prices. Subsequently most of the artists, writers, junkies, musicians, booze hounds, poets and reprobates I once knew have moved on. Some … [Read more…]
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…]
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes ‘I overheard Dorothy tell Major Falcon that she liked to become intoxicated once in a dirty while.’ Lorelei Lee from Anita Loos novella, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. One of my favourite books is a hardcover 1926, tenth edition of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. So popular was Anita Loos’ novella that … [Read more…]
Enticed by Black Leather ‘You watch the white line and try to lean with it . . . howling through a turn to the right, then to the left and down the long hill to Pacifica . . . letting off now watching for cops, but only until the next dark stretch and … [Read more…]
The Very Rich Are Different ‘Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful …’ F. Scott Fitzgerald A few days ago, … [Read more…]
Wine Snobbery ‘A man cannot make him laugh – but that’s no marvel: he drinks no wine.’ William Shakespeare Some time ago I was at a dinner party for eight and it was getting late. The hostess had got herself ossified on neat Scotch as she prepared a delectable … [Read more…]
Ritual Madness The Ancient Greeks were enthralled by opposing forces and heavily invested in two of their gods, Apollo and Dionysus. Apollo was the god of reason and wisdom – devoted to logical thinking, patience and duty. Dionysus was significantly more adventurous and dealt in the realms of imagination, play and chaos. Dionysus – … [Read more…]
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…]
Romancing the Mushroom pine mushrooms live a thousand years in one autumn Den Sutejo 1633-1698 (translated by Makoto Ueda) Autumn in Melbourne is a fine time to take a trip to the Prahran Market and visit the wild mushroom man, Damien Pike. For many years he’s been sourcing and selling mushrooms. Much … [Read more…]
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…]
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…]
This Charming Man ‘If people turn to look at you in the street, you are not well dressed, but either too stiff, too tight, or too fashionable.’ Beau Brummell (George Bryan Brummell 1778-1840) 2020 is a year where fashion was sidelined. As the pandemic seized control of the globe, fashion was … [Read more…]
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…]
The Problem With Henry ‘I swear again, I would not be a queen For all the world.’ Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s second wife. Shakespeare, The Life of King Henry the Eighth. King Henry VIII has been receiving bad press for centuries. Shakespeare, along with later writers and playwrights, got in … [Read more…]
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…]
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…]
To Proust or not to Proust ‘One of the keys to happiness is a bad memory’. Rita Mae Brown Memories get a bad wrap from quite a lot of folk, including Rita Mae Brown. Yet so many song lyrics dwell on memories. Love songs frequently combine memories with intense regret, and in turn … [Read more…]
To Nap or Not to Nap Sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleave of care, the death of each day’s life, sore labour’s bath, balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course, chief nourisher in life’s feast.’ William Shakespeare Shakespeare knew a lot about sleep, especially insomnia. I suspect he was … [Read more…]
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…]
Wicked Women Famous historical figures are frequently sensationalized to provide fodder for films, plays, operas and books. Facts are wilfully ignored because wickedness, orgies, incest, violence, psychological abuse and criminal activity will always find an audience. Cleopatra was frequently represented as an objectified woman. Everyone from Cicero to Shakespeare used her to their own … [Read more…]
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…]
The Elixir of Youth ‘Nature gives you the face you have at twenty. Life shapes the face you have at thirty. But at fifty you get the face you deserve’. French fashion designer Coco Chanel Many of us believe that in today’s era of Botox and extreme cosmetic surgery, Chanel’s statement no longer applies. A scan of Hollywood’s red carpet affairs, … [Read more…]