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Capote’s Betrayal

December 9, 2022 by Lesley Truffle

    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…]

Posted in: Fashion, Historical, Mavericks & Renegades, writers & creatives Tagged: America, American writer, Answered Prayers, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Capote, Gloria Guinness, Harper Lee, In Cold Blood, La Côte Basque, Lesley Truffle, Nelle Harper Lee, Pamela Harriman, Truman Capote, USA

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

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

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

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

January 27, 2022 by Lesley Truffle

    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…]

Posted in: art/theatre event, artists, Film, Historical, Mavericks & Renegades, movies, writers & creatives Tagged: America, American, Anita Loos, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Hollywood, Hollywood Movies, Howard Hawks, Jane Russell, Marilyn, Marilyn Monroe, Monroe, movies

Wine Snobbery

July 9, 2021 by Lesley Truffle

      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…]

Posted in: Mavericks & Renegades, Observations, Social Comment, writers & creatives Tagged: AA Gill, Adrian Gill, Lesley Truffle, Lesley Truffle Writer, the grape, wine, wine critics, wine devotees, wine snobbery, wine writers

Finding a Soulmate

May 29, 2021 by Lesley Truffle

  Finding a Soulmate   Unbroken happiness is a bore: it should have ups and downs.      Moliere Some folk secretly hope that hiding in the wings is their one and only soulmate. Many spend their lives looking for this very special person, believing that once they find the one they will live happily ever after. … [Read more…]

Posted in: Historical, Observations, Psychology, Social Comment, writers & creatives Tagged: Alain de Botton, de Botton, Doctor Robert Epstein, Dr John Bowlby, Dr Robert Epstein, John Bowlby, Lesley Truffle, Lesley Truffle Writer, Love, Love Contract, Love Project, Pschoanalyst John Bowlby, psychoanalysis, Psychoanalyst, Psychology, Soulmate

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

Naked in Leopard Skin

April 26, 2021 by Lesley Truffle

Naked in Leopard Skin Born into Italian aristocracy in 1881 and heiress to a fortune made in cotton, Luisa Casati managed to run up personal debts of $25 million.  She and her sister had been orphaned when both parents died and Luisa was only fifteen years old. The Marchesa Casati was a devotee of the … [Read more…]

Posted in: artists, Fashion, Historical, Observations, Social Comment, writers & creatives Tagged: Cecil Beaton, Jean Cocteau, Lesley Truffle, Lesley Truffle Writer, Luisa Casati, Marchesa Casati, Marchesa Luisa Casati, Pablo Picasso, Surrealism, Surrealists, The Ritz, Venice

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

The Insanity of Love

March 22, 2021 by Lesley Truffle
Graphic heart Baude Cordier's Belle, Bonne, Sage

  The Insanity of Love    ‘Marriage is the tomb of love.’                    Giacomo Casanova   Some time ago I went to hear Alain de Botton – philosopher and author speaking about modern relationships and love in Melbourne’s gloomy town hall. I’m not sure our drafty town hall is conducive to love. The couple in … [Read more…]

Posted in: art/theatre event, Historical, Social Comment, writers & creatives, Writers & Readers Events Tagged: Alain de Botton, Augusten Burroughs, Baude Cordier, Casanova, Giacomo Casanova, Lesley Truffle, Lesley Truffle Writer, Love, Romance, The Romantics

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

Venus in Steel

January 13, 2021 by Lesley Truffle

  Venus in Steel   He has the slimy assurance, the gross patter about transcendence through art, of a blow-dried Baptist selling swamp acres in Florida. And the result is that you can’t imagine America’s singularly depraved culture without him.                                                                                                                                                     Robert Hughes on Jeff Koons.   Jeff Koons has always been a divisive … [Read more…]

Posted in: art/theatre event, artists, Australia, Melbourne, writers & creatives Tagged: Andy Warhol, Australia, Ilona Staller, Jeff Koons, Koons, La Cicciolina, Lesley Truffle, Lesley Truffle Writer, Melbourne, NGV, NGV Melbourne, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol, Venus, Venus de Milo, Warhol, Wilhelm Christian Myer

Phoenix Rising

January 4, 2021 by Lesley Truffle

  Phoenix Rising   ‘Hope. It’s like a drop of honey, a field of tulips blooming in the springtime. It’s a fresh rain, a whispered promise, a cloudless sky, the perfect punctuation mark at the end of a sentence. And it’s the only thing in the world keeping me afloat.’ Tahereh Mafi   Moira Finucane … [Read more…]

Posted in: Historical, Melbourne, Mythology, Observations, writers & creatives Tagged: 2021, Ancient Myths, burlesque, Finucane, hope, Lesley Truffle, Lesley Truffle Writer, Moira Finucane, Mythology, Phoenix, Phoenix Rising, Phoenix Year, Tahereh Mafi

Flash Gordon

November 23, 2020 by Lesley Truffle

    FLASH GORDON   ‘Flash, Flash, I love you, but we only have fourteen hours to save the Earth!’                                                                                                      Flash Gordon (1980)   Ming the Merciless from the planet Mongo, has a delightfully wicked line in evil patter – ‘Pathetic Earthlings … Who can save you now? ’ Played by Max von Sydow, … [Read more…]

Posted in: Fashion, Film, films, movies, writers & creatives Tagged: Alex Raymond, Dino De Laurentiis, Flash Gordon, Freddy Mercury, King of the Impossible, Klytus, Max von Sydow, Ming, Ming the Merciless, Mongo, Queen, Sam J. Jones, Saviour of the Universe

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

Shakespeare’s Lascivious Lutes

July 11, 2020 by Lesley Truffle

  Shakespeare’s Lascivious Lutes    ‘Grim-visaged war hath smooth’d his wrinkled front; And now, instead of mounting barbed steeds To fright the souls of fearful adversaries, He capers nimbly in a lady’s chamber To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.’          Richard III by William Shakespeare.   I went to a girl’s high school in … [Read more…]

Posted in: art/theatre event, Historical, Playwright, Social Comment, writers & creatives Tagged: Elizabethan, King Lear, Lesley Truffle, Richard 111, Shakespeare, the Bard, Will Shakespeare, William Shakespeare

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

Sorrentino – The Pope Maker

February 13, 2020 by Lesley Truffle

  Paolo Sorrentino – The Pope Maker   ‘Face it, I didn’t become famous until I took my clothes off.’ ‘I always wanted to be an actor and not a beauty pageant winner.’                                                                                  Jude Law  Jude Law plays Lenny Belardo, Pope Pious XIII in The Young Pope & The New Pope.   Paolo … [Read more…]

Posted in: Film, Observations, Television series, writers & creatives Tagged: Catholic, Catholicism, Fellini, film, Frederico Fellini, HBO, John Malkovich, Jude Law, La Grande Bellezza, Loro, Malkovich, Paolo Sorrentino, Pope Pious X111, Roma, Roman Catholicism, Romans, Rome, Sorrentino, The Great Beauty, The New Pope, The Vatican, The Young Pope

The Amorous Goldfish

December 19, 2019 by Lesley Truffle

  The Amorous Goldfish The first theatre play that I wrote, involved a character named Alphonse. I’d been fortunate in that I’d been offered a mentorship with a professional director. The Australia Council for the Arts also offered me a rehearsed reading in a city theatre with the director, professional actors and an audience. It was … [Read more…]

Posted in: art/theatre event, Melbourne, Psychology, writers & creatives Tagged: Alphonse, Australia Council of the Arts, goldfish, Lesley Truffle, The Scandalous Life of Sasha Torte, Theater event

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

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

Is Big Better

July 20, 2019 by Lesley Truffle

Is Big Better? Recently I visited the Art Gallery of New South Wales, to loiter in the 19th Century European collection. There are many luscious paintings – including some massive heroic oil paintings – and a few sculptures of the era. Sitting plum in the middle of these works was a massive, glittering, stainless steel … [Read more…]

Posted in: art/theatre event, Social Comment, writers & creatives Tagged: 19th Century art, Art, art gallery, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Balloon Dog, Big Is Better, Captain James Cook, Cook, Ilona Staller, James Cook, Jeff Koons, La Cicciolina, Michael Parekowhai, New Zealand artist, Parekowhai
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