I have a thing for vintage cars, especially Italian Fiats. I once owned a second-hand Fiat Sports that been driven to the brink of ruin. The previous owner was a nurse with a taste for speed and a strong belief in amateur car repairs. Subsequently the wiring under the bonnet was strapped up with … [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…]
When I was living and working near Tokyo a few years ago, I got to know a Japanese bullet train driver. Roshi is a witty joker, a rabid opera lover and a layback kind of guy. He drives trains on the Tōhoku Shinkansen line. Back then the speeds were probably around 320km/h to 443km/h. However, … [Read more…]
I always think that summertime is synonymous with sailing and boats. As the Water Rat in the book, Wind in the Willows, sagely advises the mole, “Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.” I messed around in boats … [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…]
Bayside Melbourne is dog heaven. I know many of the dog’s names but only a few of their owners’ names. Summer, winter, autumn, spring – the dogs are out there on the beach before first light. I don’t have a dog, so when walking the beach I cunningly solicit contact with other people’s dogs. There’s … [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…]
The Little Penguins who live at Penguin in northern Tasmania are the smallest of all penguins. But when swimming in the wild waters of Bass Strait they can power through the waves at about forty kilometers an hour. I suspect the town of Penguin has never experienced a crime wave, mainly because the original goal … [Read more…]
This bronze sculpture is titled: Tommy’s Story and it’s situated on the sea wall, in Melbourne’s bayside suburb of Middle Park. I frequently pass it on my way to St Kilda and sometimes I see kids trying to lever the cap or the boots off the wall. Tourists reverently touch the bronze clothing and then … [Read more…]
Café dogs are highly socialized, even the ones that make trouble: the yappers, howlers, sneaks and leapers. I was sitting outside my favorite café, about to plunge into a delicious Sunday breakfast, when a big Labrador head appeared from under the table and thrust itself into my lap. I dropped my fork and the … [Read more…]
It’s still dark but we’re all off to work. St Kilda road is gloomy but the tram is now trundling past the National Gallery and the bare trees are festive with colored lights. City buildings are silhouetted against a sky that is slowly lightening. The tram is past its prime and the brakes are … [Read more…]