THEODORA: ACTRESS. EMPRESS. WHORE BY STELLA DUFFY, VIRAGO, $29.99.
When her father dies, Theodora survives by performing for men on the stage of Constantinople’s Hippodrome and in bed. Yet she will rise from the backstage brothels of the Byzantine Empire to become one of the most powerful women in the world.
Stella Duffy digs up the bones of this true story and gives them flesh. Ancient Constantinople comes to life, from the streets to the grounds and power plays of the palace. Theodora grows into a wild adolescent, a Christian convert, a wife and ruler. In the wrong hands, her story could become overblown, but Duffy keeps her life grounded in the context of the political and religious turmoil of the time and tells the story with intelligence.
ON RADJI BEACH BY IAN W. SHAW, MACMILLAN AUSTRALIA, $34.99.
Social historian Ian Shaw plunges into the jungle of one of Australia’s most heroic acts of women’s wartime service. When two units of city and country nurses boarded the Queen Mary in 1941 to tend soldiers serving in Malaya, duties included treating insect bites and attending parties.
By Christmas Eve, Japanese had taken the island and the nurses tossed coins and “lost” if their fate was to board a ship for safer waters, leaving wounded soldiers behind. Twenty-two of the nurses were shipwrecked at Radji Beach, where Sister Vivian Bullwinkel was the only one to survive. She was reunited with her fellow nurses at Banka Island internment camp and moved to a camp in Sumatra, in March 1942, where many died. When rescued in 1945, the remaining 24 nurses weighed around 30kg each. Back in Australia, army psychologists thought it best to pretend the POW experience never happened and survivors suffered for the rest of their lives
ITALIAN FOOD SAFARI BY MAEVE O’MEARA WITH GUY GROSSI, HARDIE GRANT, $55.
The long-awaited next feast in SBS’s beautiful Food Safari series is a celebration of the Italian Australians who have kept their food traditions intact over generations. Travel again with Maeve O’Meara and legendary chef Guy Grossi as they spend time with Australia’s top Italian chefs and producers.
Covering the four seasons, Italian Food Safari introduces you to the cosy home kitchens where masterpieces are whipped up, the elegant restaurants filled with delicious aromas, plus the specialist providores and delis, bakeries, cheesemakers and pasticcerias. Offering simple foolproof recipes anyone could cook at home, this tome celebrates the extraordinary wealth of Italian culture – families building their wood-fired ovens, growing much of their produce and keeping food at the centre of family life, a tradition we all treasure.
In 30 words or less, tell us what is great about a book you are reading at the moment. The best critique will be printed in the February issue of The Weekly and the writer will win The AWW Cooking School cookbook, valued at $74.95.
THE DISTANT HOURSBy Kate Morton, Allen & Unwin, $39.99.
“IT STARTED WITH a letter. A letter that had been lost a long time, waiting out half a century … in a forgotten postal bag in the dim attic of a nondescript house in Bermondsey. I think about it sometimes, that mailbag; of the hundreds of love letters, grocery bills, birthday cards, notes from children to their parents, that lay together, swelling and sighing as their thwarted messages whispered in the dark.”
So begins The Distant Hours, the latest novel by Kate Morton, following the runaway success of The Shifting Fog and The Forgotten Garden. Kate will not disappoint her legion of fans. In her signature style, this novel moves seamlessly from the 1990s to the grim wartime years of the 1940s, as our heroine unravels a decades-old mystery that has engulfed lives and left people changed forever. What is intriguing is how a woman who grew up at Tamborine Mountain, Queensland, attending a tiny country school, can create such vivid creations about events half a world away. Her secret is simple: old-fashioned groundwork and imagination.
“There was a lot of research to do, the sort done with books at my desk in my little office … plus a climb up Sissinghurst Tower [in Kent, England], guided tours of Blitz-torn London and an abandoned Underground station … I shiver just thinking about it!”
Also telling is her own admission that she spent much of her childhood inventing and playing games of make-believe with her sisters, and her adoration of author Enid Blyton.
Kate effortlessly paints in the minute detail of a nation at war: London’s children facing tearful farewells from their parents and a rushed evacuation to the countryside, clutching gas masks and borrowed suitcases.
There, a 13-year-old girl is chosen to live at Milderhurst Castle, where a new world opens up for the teenager as she discovers the joys of books and fantasy and writing, but she is also dragged into the adult world of love affairs gone awry and dangerous secrets.
Fifty years later, that girl’s daughter, Edie, is drawn to the castle and begins to unravel her mother’s past.
In 30 words or less, tell us what is great about a book you are reading at the moment. The best critique will be printed in the February issue of The Weekly and the writer will win The AWW Cooking School cookbook, valued at $74.95.
Please ensure you leave an email address you can be contacted on in order to be eligible for the prize.
Photography by Pierre Toussaint. Hair and make-up by Max May.
Model Lara Bingle may have been through one of the most turbulent years of her young life, but she is determined to treat it as an opportunity to grow.
“It has been an amazing learning year for me,” she says. “I feel independent and more self-aware than I was in the beginning. I believe it has helped me grow as a person and that is the most important thing in my eyes.”
The 23-year-old endured a flurry of tabloid headlines in March, after the unauthorised publication of a nude photograph, followed by intense media scrutiny during the subsequent collapse of her relationship with former fiancé, Australian Test cricket vice-captain Michael Clarke.
“The headlines are what they are,” says Lara. “Although many have been inaccurate, I just take them in my stride and try to have a sense of humour about it all.
“People perceive me in the way the media chooses to paint me. I am just doing what I love and I feel blessed to be able to do that and be given extraordinary opportunities along the way.”
And she’s looking forward to a family Christmas. “I love giving presents,” says Lara, “especially to my family and friends. I am very particular about the wrapping. There’s nothing better than receiving a well-wrapped present.
“In a perfect world, I would love to have a white Christmas this year. I’d love to go away overseas with my mum and brother.”
Read more of this story in the December issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly.
Your say: What do you think of this story? Who do you think has shaped our world this year? Share with us below.
Photography by Grant Matthews. Styling by Lizzy Shepherd
The ring on Sara Leonardi’s finger tells the story. A large white diamond surrounded by smaller pink, yellow and blue diamonds, set in white gold. “The ring says everything about Glenn and I and the life we’re making here,” says Sara, 28, the wife of former cricketer Glenn McGrath, who lost his wife, Jane, to breast cancer in 2008.
“It’s like our lives. We’re different people, but we’re also both colourful and happy people – it’s about how we fit it all together.”
Since going public with their relationship in March, Sara has fallen in love with Australia and her new life here.
“It’s been a huge and exciting year, filled with everything that I could have hoped for and more,” says Sara. “The children, Holly and James, are doing great. All of us have come a long way, taken giant steps and grown together as a family. Some days have been hard, that’s true, but mostly it’s been wonderful.”
That almost seamless blending will help make Christmas special this year. Sara’s mother is coming from Italy to join Glenn’s family at the couple’s home in Sydney.
“Christmas is all about family and friends,” says Sara. “I’m excited for the kids, but I’m also excited because my mum will be here. She’ll be cooking for everyone.
Glenn’s family will be with us, too, and we’ll take everyone out on the boat in the afternoon. It will be a great combination.”
Read more of this story in the December issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly.
Your say: What do you think of this story? Who do you think has shaped our world this year? Share with us below.
She’s the most powerful woman on earth. A nod from Oprah Winfrey means instant success and millions of women live by her simple but powerful mantra – live your best life. As Queen Oprah brings 300 of her biggest fans to Sydney for the decade’s most anticipated live shows, Sharon Krum reveals the secrets behind her amazing rise.
Oprah Winfrey knows the exact hour she decided to begin evolving into “Oprah” – the woman recently named one of the world’s 100 most influential people by Time magazine. It’s a rare thing to see it and Oprah would probably call it a lesson, a gift.
“I was looking at a skinhead show [in 1988], and I said to my staff, ‘That’s the show that caused me to do television differently’,” she told TV Guide recently. “What I learned from that is you cannot allow yourself to be a vehicle that promotes the energy of hatred in any form. That was life-changing for me.”
And so Oprah, 56, began making over her show, just as she had made over her own life, filling it with stories and people who informed, motivated, taught, excited and challenged us to be our very best selves.
She became our friend and New-Age spirit guide, confidante to celebrities and champion of the voiceless and abused. She told devotees not just to listen to their souls, but how. It turned her into the most famous talk show host in history, but it’s what Oprah did with her success that the best fortune teller wouldn’t have seen in the cards.
She stepped out of our TV screens and became a mogul – a billionaire businesswoman who runs Harpo Studios, a philanthropist, school builder, TV, theatre, radio and film producer, star maker, creator of the world’s biggest book club, O magazine founder, actress, endorser of presidential candidates, and, this month, the person who can turn the Opera House into the “Oprah House”.
“She’s talented, ambitious, smart and has this entrepreneurial instinct that few have matched,” says Professor Robert Thompson of New York’s Syracuse University, an expert in television and popular culture. “But the key to Oprah is her unique biography and her ability to seem so intimate with us.
“Forget being born with a silver spoon in her mouth, Oprah wasn’t born with a spoon,” he says. (Oprah grew up in poverty in Mississippi). “She confesses to us about her childhood abuse, her problems with weight and she allows us to think we can reinvent ourselves, too.”
“The show hasn’t been a big part of my life. It’s been my life,” Oprah told TV Guide. “I didn’t have children. I had the show.” That show and its message made her a powerhouse, but as Oprah herself has said, “Unless you choose to do great things with it, it makes no difference how much you are rewarded, or how much power you have.”
Read more of this story in the December issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly.
Your say: What do you think of this story? Who do you think has shaped our world this year? Share with us below.
Following their Junior MasterChef performance, 12-year-old “food nerds” Isabella and Sofia have plans for their own food empire. We chart their rising stars.
Here’s a sentence you don’t hear many 12-year-olds uttering: “I really liked making Adriano Zumbo’s Pear Perfection; it was so much fun”. And here’s another couple it’s safe to bet you won’t hear tripping from the lips of too many pre-teens: “Smoked eel is actually really nice”; and “I was going to order the pork belly, but finally decided on the duck confit and the sea pearls”.
Even in the post-MasterChef world in which we currently live – a world in which almost everyone knows their coulis from their confit and their snake beans from their snow egg – the culinary knowledge of your average adolescent doesn’t stretch all that much beyond the basics.
Yet the Junior MasterChef twins, the all-conquering Queensland duo of Isabella and Sofia, are anything but average. A fact you glean the moment you step into their world.
Speak to Isabella and Sofia about their experiences on the top-rating TV program and they are effusive. When Issy was proclaimed the winner she was “speechless! I was like, ‘Oh, my God! Seriously?’” During six weeks in the MasterChef kitchen, she survived multiple eliminations, endured numerous pressure tests and “plated up” a series of dishes mature beyond her years.
It was, she says, bittersweet to have to beat her own twin sister for the title, but “we were always in this together as a team. My success was always going to be Sof’s success and vice versa”. And, besides, the celebrity that has accompanied the twins’ starring role on prime-time telly has not been without its charms. “It’s fun, but it’s also a bit weird,” says Isabella. “Even at school, we’ve been giving out autographs – there are all these girls with my signature on their maths book.
“I was walking to the bus stop the other day and a couple of kids with their mum were like, ‘Oh, there’s Issy from MasterChef’ – which is kind of cool.”
Mum Sylvana calls her daughters “food nerds”, a label they are only too willing to wear. “One night in Sydney, we went with the other finalists to Billy Kwong for dinner,” recalls Sofia. “And, afterwards, we went back home and Jack had the Heston Blumenthal cookbook and we had it out on our laps, and we were just going through it going, ‘Oh, my God! Look at that!’ ”
Having spent so much time in the company of their fellow mini-foodies and shared such a unique experience with them, the girls are still in regular contact with the other contestants. Fellow finalists Jack and Pierre crop up in conversation with notable regularity. “We talk to Pierre and Jack almost every day,” says Issy. “They’re really nice boys. We’re planning a reunion with all our families over the Christmas holidays.”
Yet, for the time being, there’s their shared passion for music (Issy plays the cello and Sofia the violin) plus the serious business of empire building to be considered. Determined to open their own chain of restaurants called “IsSofia” – with outlets in all Australian capital cities and an outpost in Sicily – the twins intend to pursue a passion that is very much a family affair. “Food is like the thing that we do as a family,” says Sofia. “We talk about food, we cook together and we love eating together. It’s a huge part of our life.”
Read more of this story in the December issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly.
Your say: What do you think of this story? How much do you think our capacity for happiness is inherited and how much is influenced by our choices? Share with us below.
As her romance with Prince William developed, Kate Middleton reportedly received intense royal training to help her cope with the pressures of one day becoming a part of the royal family.
Kate, who will marry her prince on April 29, 2011, at Westminster Abbey, was treated like no other prospective princess within the royal family, Us Weekly reported.
“[Kate] was given royal assistance like no other girl has ever been given before entering the family,” Katie Nicholl, author of William and Harry: Behind the palace walls told the magazine.
The “royal assistance” given to the 28-year-old included lessons on how William’s late mother, Princess Diana, conducted her busy life as well as tutorials on royal correspondence, public speaking and advice on “how to behave at banquets”.
“About three years ago, palace staff started showing Kate video of Diana,” she said.
“Video of her getting out of a car and paparazzi going berserk, so that Kate would know how to deal with it. Now she already knows how this works.”
Putting the hype of the royal engagement aside, Prince William is also getting attention for his role in the rescue of a hiker who was suffering chest pains on a mountainside in northern Wales on November 18.
In his role as a Royal Air Force Sea King helicopter pilot, Prince William was called out to assist hiker Greg Watkins, who was suffering from chest pains, the UK’s Sunday Mirror reported.
The rescue saw the 28-year-old newly engaged prince and a team of three others fly through a storm more than 900m over Snowdon mountain to reach the hiker.
“I didn’t know much about what was happening at the time,” Watkins said.
“The winchman helped me out and onto a stretcher and whispered, ‘Prince William’s just flown you here.’ It didn’t really sink in until I woke up after my operation. Now I think it’s amazing.”
Prince William was the hero of the rescue after manoeuvring the 22m-long helicopter through a break in the weather and guided it to a position that enabled the crew to reach Watkins who was then airlifted to hospital.
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