Glimpses of HRH Princess Margaret ‘I wouldn’t let that family get near me with a sharp stick – let alone a sword’. Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, commenting on the 2003 ceremony to knight Sir Mick Jagger. He was anointed by the future King Charles. The ceremony involved Jagger being tapped on the shoulder … [Read more…]
The Sphinx And at yet another dinner she produced a revolver and placed it beside her. A startled guest enquired: ‘Duchess, what are you going to do with that?’ To which she replied: ‘Oh I don’t know, I might just shoot Marlborough!’ (excerpt from biography The Sphinx … [Read more…]
In praise of bounders & cads Thanks to shows such as Succession, Rivals, The White Lotus and Sirens there’s never a shortage of at shows portraying rich and privileged people behaving badly. It’s become a streaming genre which offers up the possibility of drama, disaster, satire, and humour in one easily consumed package. Movies … [Read more…]
Wild and Wicked Famous women are frequently sensationalized to provide historical 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 … [Read more…]
Yayoi Kusama ‘The first time I ever saw a pumpkin was when I was in elementary school and went with my grandfather to visit a big seed-harvesting ground…and there it was: a pumpkin the size of a man’s head… It immediately began speaking to me in a most animated manner.’ Yayoi Kusama – … [Read more…]
Champagne Wishes & Caviar Dreams Robin Leach – host of the 80’s television series, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous – provided humorous descriptions of yachts, mansions and private jets on his show. He signed off wishing his viewers, champagne wishes and caviar dreams. When I was a child, my mother used to … [Read more…]
Detouring with Tim Rogers ‘When I decided to embark on writing, I got my seersucker suit dry-cleaned and bought a case of gin. And I thought, ‘OK – I’ve been given a job. But my first question is: what do I wear?’ I was a Tennessee Williams wannabe – crate of gin … [Read more…]
All the world’s a stage ‘Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury Signifying nothing.’ Will Shakespeare ‘Macbeth’ A connection exists between … [Read more…]
Iris Apfel ‘I’m not pretty and I’ll never be pretty, but it doesn’t matter. I have something much better, I have style.’ Iris Apfel 1921-1924 Iris Apfel, interior designer, model and fashionista has died at the age of 102. Her life was lived magnificently. Iris and her husband Carl Apfel owned … [Read more…]
Hold Your Fire Seek the company of people who, when left alone in a room with a tea cosy, will always try it on. Billy Connolly – actor, comedian & writer. We live in an era where it is astonishingly easy for pretty much anyone to be ‘cancelled’. Meantime many … [Read more…]
Capote’s Betrayal ‘Imagination, of course, can open any door – turn the key and let terror walk right in.’ In Cold Blood by Truman Capote Truman Capote is best known for his novella Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1958) and his narrative fiction book, In Cold Blood (1966). In Cold Blood was based … [Read more…]
The Uber Rich ‘I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain … Time to die.’ Actor Rutger Hauer in Blade Runner … [Read more…]
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…]
Sailor’s Superstitions ‘I’m not afraid of storms, for I’m learning how to sail my ship.’ Louisa May Alcott ‘The sea finds out everything you did wrong.’ Francis Stokes I’ve always been fascinated by the tradition of breaking a bottle of champagne over the bow of a ship being launched. It must be … [Read more…]
Hotel Ghosts For the last few days I’ve been doing a road trip around South Tasmania, while staying in a lovely hotel in Hobart’s wharf area. The area is rumoured to be fantastically ghost ridden. About 150 years ago the area around the wharf was known as Wapping. Folk who lived here worked in the … [Read more…]
‘I am 100 percent in favor of the intelligent use of drugs, and 1,000 percent against the thoughtless use of them, whether caffeine or LSD. And drugs are not central to my life.’ Timothy Leary, American Psychologist 1920-1996 Drugs have a tendency to become fashionable and then fall from favour. In … [Read more…]
Hollywood Dame – Zsa Zsa Gabor ‘A man in love is incomplete until he has married. Then he’s finished.’ Zsa Zsa Gabor In the fifties and sixties, Zsa Zsa Gabor became more famous for playing herself than the films, stage shows and television shows she appeared in. Born in Budapest and … [Read more…]
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…]
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…]