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 and Paris, 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 a bottle … [Read more…]
I often sneak back to the old neighbourhood to meet friends. It’s become increasingly gentrified; old houses have been tizzied up and sold for exceedingly high prices. Subsequently many of the artists, writers, junkies, musicians, booze hounds, photographers, dressmakers, poets and reprobates, I once knew have moved on. Some wisely moved up the coast … [Read more…]
I was born in London but raised in Australia by English parents. The second house we lived in was referred to by my mother’s friends as ‘ Little England ’ , while some local kids rudely called it ‘ The Addam’s Family House ’. I thought the insult gave our place cachet, as … [Read more…]
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…]
When I was a child I couldn’t understand why a large part of the world lacked essential food and clean water – and were frequently starving – while the rest of the world were either dieting like fiends or noshing on exotic food stuffs in fancy expensive restaurants. Not much has changed. I find … [Read more…]
I no longer own a television. I only ever used my TV to watch DVD movies and most of the time I preferred watching movies at the cinema. I love the occasion of going out to the cinema with friends and being part of an audience. I sold my television some time back when … [Read more…]
CLEOPATRA 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 control most of the … [Read more…]
I made a discovery the other day – new born babies don’t enjoy going to the movies. I’d dropped by my local cinema to catch Kenneth Branagh’s, Murder on the Orient Express and didn’t realize that I was attending a ‘Babes in Arms’ movie session. It finally dawned on me – when I stumbled … [Read more…]
When Vincent van Gogh committed suicide in July 1890, aged 37, he’d only been painting for about a decade. He was immensely productive, despite suffering acute nervous attacks and paralysing depression. Vincent willingly spent money on art materials but he ate poorly and had lost most of his teeth by the time he was … [Read more…]
Melbourne’s Deakin Edge is a strange venue. The whole construction slopes precariously down to the hardwood stage area. Vertigo was apparent on the faces of those pioneering their way down to the front rows during the 2017 Melbourne Writers Festival. Rock icon, Tex Perkins (born Gregory Stephen Perkins), was onstage being interviewed by radio … [Read more…]
Marchesa Luisa Casati When I was doing research for my novel, Hotel du Barry, I read up on luxury European hotels in the early twentieth century. The London and Paris Ritz became my favourite hotels and I discovered the Marchesa Casati because she was a devotee of the Paris Ritz. Her nickname was ‘Medusa of … [Read more…]
The crucifix stage is a raised catwalk illuminated with bare light bulbs. Two mysterious shrouded women sing while the audience take their places at small cabaret tables. There’s haze. A hell of a lot of hazy stage mist is being pumped from an industrial machine. Something perfumes the air and evokes the smell of church … [Read more…]
It’s been a particularly lovely Melbourne autumn this year but now the days are getting shorter and we are heading into winter. Taking the city bound tram and heading off early to work on golden autumn mornings has been fabulous. The late nineteenth century trees that line both sides of St Kilda Road … [Read more…]
Ever since I read, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, I’ve had a thing for mushrooms. I was about six when I first came across the notorious Alice Liddell, disappearing down the rabbit hole into a fantastical world. The scene where she comes across the caterpillar sucking on a hookah – while seated on a sinister … [Read more…]
London’s fictitious Hotel du Barry is nine floors of wickedness, jealousies, aberrant desires and delectable sins. It’s a darkly humorous tale fuelled by gin and murderous intent. I had lot of fun writing the Hotel du Barry. I wanted to create a palace akin to the Vatican, a place of mystery and imagination. It would … [Read more…]
Antonin Carême In my second novel, The Scandalous Life of Sasha Torte, I acknowledge Ian Kelly’s wonderful non-fiction book, Cooking for Kings: The Life of Antonin Carême , the First Celebrity Chef (Walker & Company, New York). After her grandfather gifts her several leather-bound copies of Carême’s cookbooks, Sasha Torte – the fictitious, future Tasmanian … [Read more…]
Terry Virts – US Air Force Colonel and retired NASA Astronaut – was in town last night at a School of Life event, talking about his three spacewalks and 200 days in space. Virts has been the Commander of the International Space Station (ISS), piloted the NASA space shuttle and flown on the Russian … [Read more…]
The Devil’s soldier drummers are increasing the beats. Their faces sinister with heavy black brows, masks of white makeup and strange white horns. We’re all hoping something wicked is coming our way. The Devil is now amongst us. He towers over everyone in his huge headdress of ram’s horns, beaked snout and flaming slashed … [Read more…]
A few days ago Alain de Botton – philosopher, television presenter, author and founder of The School of Life – spoke about modern relationships and love in Melbourne’s gloomy town hall. His show was titled: Alain de Botton on Love. I’m not sure our drafty town hall is conducive to love. The couple in … [Read more…]
Bellingen is everything that I always hope an Australian country town will be. It’s situated riverside in New South Wales, in the lovely Bellinger Valley, between the coast and the Dorrigo Plateau. Bellingen is also in close proximity to the Dorrigo World Heritage rainforest and some stunning beaches running from Urunga to Woolgoolga. I was … [Read more…]
When I saw Sven Marquardt’s Melbourne exhibition I wanted to run away to Berlin. Marquardt’s transgressive black and white photographs capture the dark gothic splendour of Berlin after dark. He grew up in East Berlin before the wall came down, and by his own admission, ‘I have always been a man who polarised people.’ (Kultur, Edition … [Read more…]
The tram lurches away from the tram stop at the top end of Swanston Street. We can hear the aircon but can’t feel it. All the windows are hermetically sealed. When the doors whisper open a blast of hot northerly wind enters and stirs up the city aroma of petrol fumes, stale perfumes, body odour … [Read more…]
Last night David Suzuki, Naomi Oreskes and Tim Flannery filled the huge Melbourne Town Hall to capacity when they presented, For Thought: Hope for the Planet. David Suzuki – Canadian author, scientist, environmentalist & broadcaster delivered a powerful opening address that cut straight to the heart of the matter. He recalled that decades earlier he’d … [Read more…]
Zeehan was dead quiet when I turned into Main Street around ten am. There was nobody about, so I stood in the middle of the road taking photographs of the marvellous 1800’s and 1900’s era buildings. For during the silver boom Zeehan had been widely known as the Silver City. The Rescue Shop was open. … [Read more…]
Driving up north from Zeehan yesterday morning, the bushfire smoke got so dense that I had to turn my headlights on. Winding around the sharp hairpin bends became increasingly surreal as visibility diminished, yet the bloody roadkill of the previous night remained starkly visible. So many furry wilderness animals. Gone. A local bloke told me … [Read more…]