AT HOME WITH THE TEMPLETONS, BY MONICA MCINERNEY, MICHAEL JOSEPH, $32.95.
The Templetons are a feckless, charming English family of seven and they’ve just moved into a stately home in rural Australia.
They seem to have it all, especially in the eyes of neighbour Nina Donovan, a lonely young widow with a robust son, Tom. Yet all is not perfect at Templeton Hall. In fact, their life is built on a lie. Only sweet 11-year-old Gracie Templeton is happy. Her father has secrets, her aunt is an alcoholic, her sisters are neurotic and her brother is careless, but Gracie is the one who will suffer the most. Monica McInerney’s book explores the characters’ motivations, their decisions and the way they deal with consequences.
If you like Clint Eastwood movies, you will love Blue Heaven. It’s a story that’s just waiting to star and be directed by the movie icon.
Twelve-year-old Annie and her brother, William, sick of their mother’s boyfriend, take off to go fishing in the woods. There, they witness a murder and have to run for their lives. Their pursuers show they’ll stoop to anything to find and kill the kids. So who will believe two children? Who will save them? Enter Jess Rawlins, a rancher, who’s fighting off developers and yearning for the old way of life. See what I mean about Clint? You’ll find yourself reading increasingly faster, until you realise the end is near and you force yourself to savour the precious remaining pages.
Fall Of Giants, BY KEN FOLLETT, PAN MACMILLAN, $49.99.
Ken Follett is perhaps best known for his two historical novels, Pillars Of The Earth and World Without End. And his reputation as a master storyteller is again confirmed. It is the first in the Century Trilogy and introduces the reader to the five families whose lives Follett will follow.
The book opens just before the outbreak of World War I and closes in 1925. At nearly 1000 pages, it’s not for the faint-hearted, but the author’s skill as a writer means you don’t even notice the size. The main characters’ lives unfold with compelling drama and complexity, and once again, Follett’s research is impeccable.
To budding authors out there, it’s heartening to see that teacher and artist Maris Morton was 72 when she snatched the inaugural CAL Scribe Fiction Prize 2010 (awarded to an unpublished manuscript by an Australian writer over the age of 35).
Her novel is a “derring dip” into a male-dominated, old-style way of life on a rural WA merino sheep stud in fictional Downe. Set against a backdrop of the changing seasons in native bush and the contrasting gossamer-thread orchard around the homestead, Morton weaves the landscape into a gentle – and at times pedestrian – tale of generations of family intrigue.
A cast of characters, including no-nonsense agency housekeeper Mary Lanyon and dying lady of the house Clio Hazlitt, has their secrets laid bare during sheep-shearing season, as competent Mary feeds vital meals to the hungry shearers – pork “sangers” and cheese scones for morning smoko – while fighting advances from a beery shepherd. Morton’s UN peacekeeping soldier widow Mary manages to satisfyingly marshal the neglected property into orderly submission, all the while confronting archaic attitudes and unearthing diaries of lost dreams and bittersweet memories.
Tilda Swinton’s life is as intriguing on-screen as it is in real life. The unique beauty talks to Josh Jackson about her unconventional film roles and how she openly loves two men at the same time
She attended boarding schools in England and Scotland before graduating from Cambridge University in 1983. Two years later, she met playwright and painter John Byrne, who moved to London in 1990 to be with her. After Tilda gave birth to twins, Xavier and Honor, in 1997, the couple moved to Nairn, Scotland, just north of Inverness.
While John remains her companion at home, she’s begun travelling with another love, her boyfriend, German-born artist Sandro Kopp, whom she met on the set of Narnia, where he played a centaur. The 32-year-old has been on her arm at most of her public appearances and he’s quietly at her side here at our lunch. The unusual situation has the apparent blessing of John and Sandro has even spent time with the family back home in the Highlands.
“The whole concept of romantic love,” she says, talking about the film, but also, you sense, explaining her non-traditional lifestyle, “that whole concept that there is one person who will complete you, who you are not complete without. And then this person arrives – and then again, there is only one. Ever. And they complete you and, therefore, you are never complete without them. And, at the same time, you are somehow finished with them. There’s some kind of Saran Wrap [plastic wrap] around you as a unit. It feels so unhealthy, the pressure.”
“And when you think of people really being, I would go so far as saying ‘indoctrinated’, in the feeling that that’s the only way to conduct their lives, they will not be able to be viable human beings unless they find this person to complete them. And then they have to stick to it. That’s it – that sort of hanging on for dear life. What do they do when they do feel lonely on a Wednesday morning?”
Instead, Tilda professes love for two men, for her 12-year-old twins and for the many film-makers who call her muse. Such as Scottish auteur Lynne Ramsay, with whom Tilda says she’s been developing an adaptation of Lionel Shriver’s novel, We Need To Talk About Kevin. She’ll play the mother of a teenage boy who has murdered his classmates – “another alien”.
She may have entered the world of acting half-heartedly, but she’s found her vocation since that first conversation with Derek Jarman, searching, as she says of her mentor, for “that loose corner where we might prize up the carpet and uncover the rich slate of something we might recognise as spirit underneath, something raw and dusty and inarticulate, for heaven’s sake”.
Read more of this story in the October issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly.
Your say: What do you think of this story? What do you think of Tilda’s relationship choice? Share with us below.
Photography by Chris Colls. Styling by Lizzy Shepherd
Kristy Hinze and Jodhi Meares share a friendship that stretches back almost two decades. Now, as both women tell Bryce Corbett, they find themselves at personal and professional crossroads.
This is a tale of two lives less ordinary. The story of a couple of Aussie girls whose natural good looks shot them to the top of the competitive world of modelling and thrust them both into the path of a billionaire. It’s an account of a friendship that has survived years and spanned continents. A friendship that is about to bear witness to dramatic changes in both women’s lives.
When Kristy Hinze and Jodhi Meares first met in Sydney, some 15 years ago, neither could have predicted where life was about to take them.
The year was 1995 and, at only 15, Kristy had just made a splash by being the youngest person to grace the cover of Vogue Australia. Jodhi, who had begun her own modelling career at 16, had already been in front of the lens for seven years. Despite the eight-year age difference, the pair hit it off immediately.
Kristy went on to spend a decade as an international model, striding the catwalks of Paris, Milan and New York, before falling in love with and marrying internet pioneer Jim Clark. Jodhi, meanwhile, stayed at home, found herself a billionaire of her own and built a successful swimwear company.
Their lives took on ever less probable proportions. For one, luxury homes in New York, Miami and Sydney, an enormous private yacht and a life spent sailing the world’s oceans in a noble quest to preserve them. For the other, a brief taste of the life of privilege which comes with being a member of Australia’s most prominent family, before eschewing the limelight and retreating to a simpler life on an island getaway.
Throughout it all, the one constant has been their friendship. According to Jodhi, now 38, the two women share a connection that is “fundamental”. Born of the shared, unusual experience of being feted for their looks at such a young age and cemented by similar senses of humour, philosophical outlooks and a subsequent getting of wisdom, the duo are a comfort in one another’s increasingly transient lives. And never more so than right now.
As the recently married wife of Texan-born Netscape founder, Jim Clark, 66, Kristy Hinze finds herself at somewhat of a professional crossroads. After 15 years spent scaling the heights of the international modelling scene, Kristy, 30, has gone back to school to take distance university courses with a view to becoming an environmental scientist.
Nature conservation is a passion she shares with her husband. Five years ago, Jim helped establish the Ocean Preservation Society and bankrolled the Academy Award-winning documentary, The Cove – a powerful film about dolphin slaughter in Japan.
Read more of this story in the October issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly.
Your say: What do you think of this story? How do you keep your friendships strong? Share with us below.
It’s not just padded bras and lipstick – girls are experimenting with sex way too soon and teen pregnancies are on the rise. Bryce Corbett reports on this disturbing new trend.
It’s two o’clock on a Saturday afternoon in suburban Melbourne. A pink limousine pulls into a driveway and disgorges a gaggle of excited 10-year-olds. They’re here to celebrate a friend’s birthday, at a party organised by professional event planners. Where once their afternoon would have been spent apple bobbing, playing pass the parcel and munching fairy bread, today, they’ll have a mini-facial, a manicure and a foot spa, get their hair done and have their faces made up. It’s just one of hundreds of so-called Princess Pamper Parties that will take place across the country today.
Meanwhile, in Sydney, news breaks that a beautician has turned away a woman who brought her nine-year-old to have her legs waxed. A week later in the UK, clothing chain Primark buckles to pressure from outraged parent groups and removes padded bikini tops for girls as young as seven from its shelves.
In the pages of the gossip mags, we see Suri Cruise, four, wearing heels, Jordan and Peter Andre’s two-year-old Princess Tiaamii, being dolled up in false eyelashes and 10-year-old Noah Cyrus on the red carpet in lycra, a corset and patent leather stiletto boots. Welcome to the world of being a little girl in 2010.
There was a time, not long ago, when being a little girl meant playing with dolls, skipping rope and staging tea parties. That was when sugar and spice and all things nice was as prescriptive as the parameters of girlhood got. Yet, these days, you’re not worthy of being a tween unless you’ve mastered mascara or had your first eyebrow wax.
In our cash-rich, time-poor society, parents are standing by helplessly as their daughters get old before their time. There’s mounting concern among parents that our kids are having foot spas and going to supermodel parties when they should be running barefoot or pinning tails on donkeys. Yet, until recently, few parents felt emboldened to speak up – for fear of being considered fuddy-duddies.
“But it’s just a bit of harmless fun,” says Janine Lynch, director of Pink Limos, one of Melbourne’s purveyors of Princess Pamper Parties. “Little girls have always liked to dress up and wear Mummy’s high heels. We’re just adding a bit of karaoke and glitter make-up into the mix. It’s not like we’re turning them into JonBenet [Ramsey]. I honestly don’t know what all the fuss is about.”
Read more of this story in the October issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly.
Your say: What do you think of this story? Do you think our girls are growing up too fast? Why? Share with us below.
Alexis Keogh's father has been behind bars for the past 15 years
Being imprisoned for a crime you did not commit is the stuff of nightmares. Sue Williams talks to the wrongly convicted about their call for justice reforms.
Alexis Keogh is curled up in a chair, looking through a big box of letters. She smiles as she re-reads some, a shadow of sadness passes over her face at others. For the past 15 years, these letters from her dad have kept her going, as well as the hope that he might soon be home again.
Alexis was only nine when her father, Henry Keogh, was taken away by the police and charged with murder. Her mum – Henry’s ex-wife – told her not to worry. It was obviously a mistake and it would all be sorted out and he’d be released in days. Yet Henry has been in prison ever since, despite serious misgivings held by senior lawyers and forensic experts about the quality of evidence at his trial.
“I was always very close to Dad,” says Alexis, now 25. “But I’m beyond being angry. I’m just in complete disbelief – there’s so much doubt now surrounding the evidence on which he was convicted, it’s ridiculous he’s not being freed.”
South Australian Henry Keogh was convicted in August 1995 of murdering his fiancée, solicitor Anna-Jane Cheney, 29, with no direct evidence of any kind connecting him with the death. The entire case was based on circumstantial evidence and medical experts have since stated that the autopsy on the victim, from which most of it came, was “sub-standard”. The pathologist in charge was criticised by the state coroner, with the forensics strongly disputed by high-profile medical scientists.
“The system just isn’t designed to find out the truth and correct mistakes,” says Alexis, who is studying sports massage in Adelaide. “Justice needs to be done. I need my father back.”
She’s hopeful that might happen soon. A new petition has just gone forward to the state’s solicitor-general about the case, with supporters that include senior lawyers and forensic experts. They’re now “cautiously optimistic” that Henry will be the next person, following a slew of other miscarriage of justice cases, to seize the headlines – and freedom.
Read more of this story in the October issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly.
Your say: What do you think of this story? Share with us below.
Once deemed over the hill, 50 is now the age of personal and professional success. These three well-known women sing the praises of their age to Kelly Baker.
A generation or two ago, we lived in a vastly different Australia to the one we live in today. Telephones had cords, seatbelts were optional and women over the age of 50 were past their prime. Indeed, the consensus was that women were at their best between their 20s and 30s. By 40, it was assumed their lustre was dimming and by 50, Australian women were seen as middle-aged and ready to fade into the background.
Today, 50-plus women are doing anything but fading. In fact, they are discovering that growing up can be an infinitely brighter, more exhilarating and exciting experience than previous generations thought possible. For example, research shows that in areas such as body image, intimate relationships, careers and friendships, a large proportion of women over 50 are happier than at any other period of their lives.
“In the past, it was as though you reached this age and you lost something … today, it’s all about what you gain,” says Dr Amanda Deeks, a senior research psychologist at the Jean Hailes Foundation for Women’s Health in Melbourne. “We’ve effectively redefined middle-age.”
A second, Chicago-based study found that over-50s were not only happier, more confident and more socially active than their mothers were at the same age, they were also happier than younger women. “The majority of today’s older women truly feel at their peak personally, professionally, financially and psychologically,” says lead study author Marti Barletta. “They are what I’ve come to call ‘The Prime Time Women’.”
According to this research, mid-life women are extremely contented. They feel more in control and see their futures as filled with opportunity. They’re not unrealistic – they know life may well throw them a curve ball, but they feel equipped with the life skills to handle it. There’s a multitude of reasons behind this shift, with self-belief and boosted confidence perhaps the most significant. Yet there is no doubt that today’s women also have the anti-ageing edge over previous generations, thanks to significant scientific breakthroughs in nutrition, medicine and exercise. Women eat better, get regular health checks and know that exercise keeps fat levels low and muscle and bones strong – all of which significantly slow the ageing process.
“Women in their 40s, 50s and older are out there lifting barbells, paddling kayaks and running,” says Paula Goodyer, author of Fit And Firm For Ever (Random House, $34.95), who adds that, in 2010, a 50-year-old woman is likely to look a decade younger than her grandmother did. That’s also thanks to women’s changing attitudes to what they wear.
Grown-up women have discarded matronly garb in favour of beautiful clothing in all shapes and shades. Skincare has also been embraced; if a particular cosmetic happens to be costly, women have the cash to pay for it. And let’s not forget significant advancements in the field of cosmetic surgery. Thanks to the introduction of muscle relaxants, such as Botox, and skin boosters, including Restylane, today’s 50-plus woman can stay looking youthful for longer. Better still, she can do so without going under the knife.
Read more of this story in the October issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly.
Your say: What do you think of this story? Do you think our opinions of age are changing? What has been your favourite age (so far)? Share your thoughts with us below.
In a battle worthy of one of his hugely successful books, author Stieg Larsson’s untimely death has pitted his partner, Eva Gabrielsson, against his family, as she tells William Langley.
On a November afternoon in 2004, 50-year-old Stieg Larsson, an overweight, chain-smoking, Swedish news agency reporter, arrived at his office in central Stockholm. The lift wasn’t working, so Stieg hauled himself up to the seventh floor, where he collapsed with a massive heart attack. He died on the way to hospital.
Although Stieg had lived for some time with the prospect of an early death, it wasn’t supposed to happen this way. Much of his work was devoted to investigating neo-Nazi groups, from whom he had received several death threats. They were taken seriously enough for Stieg and his long-term girlfriend, Eva Gabrielsson, to take precautions to protect themselves.
The experience of living with danger had, however, helped Stieg to write three crime novels. At the time of his death, they were unpublished and hardly anyone, apart from the author, Eva and a few of their friends, even knew of the books’ existence.
Everyone knows about them now. The Millennium trilogy has become a global publishing phenomenon, outselling the Harry Potter series in Europe, topping the best-seller lists in Australia and New Zealand, and creating a frenzy of expectation in the US, which, according to The New York Times, “hasn’t been seen since the early 1840s, when they thronged the docks of New York, hailing incoming ships for the latest Charles Dickens”.
To date, Stieg’s books have sold more than 30 million copies, earning at least $50 million, with much more to come when the Hollywood adaptation of the first novel, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, arrives in 2012.
Yet, whose money is it? As the Millennium juggernaut rolls on, the battle for Stieg’s fortune has turned into a thriller in its own right – one rich in mystery, sex, bad blood and politics. At its heart is the enigmatic figure of 53-year-old Eva, the woman who shared Stieg’s life for more than 30 years. “We had always intended to marry,” Eva tells me, sitting in a shady Stockholm park. “We fell in love when we were 18 and, when we moved here, Stieg proposed to me.”
She still wears the gold ring he gave her in 1983, with her name engraved on the inside. “We couldn’t go through with it,” she goes on. “In Sweden, when you marry, you have to put a lot of information on the public record. Stieg had received threats. I was frightened. We would have been putting ourselves at risk.”
Neither of them foresaw the deeper consequences of remaining unmarried. Sweden’s inheritance laws make no provision for de facto partners and Stieg had neglected to make a will. When he died, Eva discovered that she had no legal rights whatsoever to his estate. At first, she was philosophical. After all, the couple, who had no children, owned little apart from a modest flat in the city. It was only when The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo took off that the enormity of the implications hit her.
“We had always shared everything,” Eva says. “Sometimes, I earned a bit more and sometimes he did. It wouldn’t have been Stieg’s way to make a will. He thought about living, not dying.”
Read more of this story in the October issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly.
Your say: What do you think of this story? Have you read any of the Millennium series? Share with us below.
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