The author has plucked a nightmare straight out of the nightly news – the abduction of a young girl and her incarceration in a locked room – and turned it into a novel as intriguing as it is chilling.
The story is told by the captive’s five-year-old son, Jack, fathered in captivity by a vile sexual predator they call Old Nick. Jack knows no world but “Room”, believing the sun, sky and people he sees on TV to be created images. It is the world outside that seems scary. This contrast between Jack’s happy innocence and Ma’s growing terror as she plots their escape gives the novel a thriller-like tension.
The author concedes her debt to real-life captives Elisabeth Fritzl and Natascha Kampusch. Don’t be scared off, you’ll find a strange tenderness and even humour.
HITCH 22 BY CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS, ALLEN & UNWIN, $35.
A memoir from the thinking woman’s crumpled crumpet, the dishevelled but always wildly articulate Christopher Hitchens.
The younger son of a British naval officer and an effervescent beauty, he overhears them plotting his future: “If there is going to be an upper class in this country, then Christopher is going to be in it”. And so on to Oxford, Fleet Street and a gilded life as a writer, commentator and self-styled contrarian. Hitchens tells all, from his dramatic conversion from lion of the Left to passionate supporter of American capitalism, to his astonishing capacity for hard work and alcohol. His two wives don’t get much of a look-in – his true love turns out to be novelist Martin Amis. The writing is brilliant and his most savage lines are saved for himself.
Detective Anna Travis’ worst nightmare comes true when a sadistic killer she helped put behind bars claims he can help her with a murder investigation.
A redhead, clad in snappy suits and starched collars, Lynda La Plante’s Detective Inspector Anna Travis has crime investigation in her blood. Her late father was a detective chief superintendent and his smart, sexy daughter eats and sleeps the job – eats from a microwave and sends her linen and clothes out to be laundered and dry-cleaned. Anna is no longer the rookie of the earlier novels – this is the sixth book in the detective series by La Plante – and she is brought in to join a team of detectives on a triple murder investigation.
An unidentified young woman’s body has been dumped close to a highway service station, a favourite late-night pull-in for truckies seeking coffee, a fry-up … and more. The police are well aware of the prostitutes and it becomes evident that the victim, who was raped and strangled, displays the same MO (modus operandi) as two other unsolved murders of young women in the area.
In true La Plante style, the police station is vividly set up: incident board pinned with photographs, piles of statements and files, press calls and briefings. Yet when the trail goes cold, the murder team is forced to take seriously a chilling offer of assistance from sadistic killer Cameron Welsh, serving life in a secure prison unit.
Anna was part of the team that arrested him for the torture and rape of his female victims, whom he held captive for months in the cellar of his large house before burying one of them in his garden. Welsh, an obsessive, highly intelligent killer, defended himself at his trial and has taken a degree in child psychology while in jail. Reluctantly, Anna and her sidekick relent and allow him to view the case work.
Welsh revels in studying developments in the latest case and clearly gets as much of a thrill from discussing the mind-set and anatomy of a sex killer as he does from seeing Anna in the flesh. Pacey and menacing, La Plante’s narrative is filmic, putting the reader side by side with DI Anna Travis through every step of the investigation.
Welsh has a warning for Anna, telling her, with relish, that behind the most welcoming of front doors and most amiable of family men lurks an animal and a hunter. In the hands of La Plante, the now veteran DI Travis is well aware of this – and she will only solve the serial killings at the cost of the most terrible of personal sacrifices.
At 35, Natalie Imbruglia is finally at ease with herself. And, as she tells Michael Sheather, she’s changed her mind about motherhood.
Natalie Imbruglia, the beautiful, doe-eyed ingenue and former Neighbours star who smashed her way into music history in the late ’90s with her heartbreak hit Torn, has reached a personal watershed. At 35, after years of publicly declaring that even the thought of becoming a mother “terrified” her, Natalie, the self-described “gypsy” of the pop world, wants to have a child.
“My thinking has changed,” says Natalie, who is currently single. “There was a time when I couldn’t think of anything worse, when it was perhaps a very scary concept for me. But if you’re asking me today whether I would like to have a baby, then the answer is yes, I certainly would. There are times when I have been clucky. I am 35 and it has been on my mind.”
Win an amazing health, beauty or fashion escape!
Change is a critical and constant theme in Natalie’s life. The past few years have been marked by both emotional and professional upheaval. Two years ago, her marriage to Silverchair lead singer Daniel Johns ended with a joint statement from the high-profile couple citing the combined strain of work commitments and a long-distance relationship.
Sometimes disappointment, even heartache, can herald unanticipated changes: freedom, renewed confidence and a greater understanding. Age and its accompanying maturity have helped Natalie welcome each of these in recent years.
Part of this personal transformation, she says, is a readiness to place herself back into the public eye. With a new role on the Australian version of the UK talent show The X Factor, screening on the Seven Network in September, Natalie believes she is finally coming to terms with her place in the world. In so many ways, she’s no longer torn.
“I think I am more comfortable in my skin now than I have ever been,” she says, her legs curled beneath her as she reclines in a retro ’50s ball chair, basking in the brief glory of Sydney’s winter sun. “I have been through some big changes in my life, sure. But there are good things that come with that. Just the wisdom that you get – you think you know it all and then you realise that you don’t. I think it’s that I like myself a lot more. Part of it is age, I’m sure. I am finally okay with who I am. I don’t need to project a particular image, be this way or that. I know who I am and that gives you a confidence that filters through in every area of your life.
“Sure, I carry my battle scars, but I certainly feel happy, strong and a little less guarded. I’m not worried about what people might think. In the past, I was someone who was, perhaps, a little too guarded for my own good. I think that is about the struggle of being in the public eye. Some people can do it and some can’t. I think I have much more of a sense of lightness around it now.”
Your say: What do you think of Natalie Imbruglia? Do you have a favourite song of hers? Share with us below.
Catch Natalie on The X Factor in Channel 7
Read more of this story in the August issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly.
Photography by Grant Matthews. Styling by Judith Cook.
On the nightly news, she is cool and composed. Yet as Bryce Corbett discovers, you only have to put our new PM in stilettos and delve a little into her personal life to find the woman behind the politician.
Julia Gillard is running late. The Royal Australian Air Force jet that will be flying her from Sydney to Darwin this evening is sitting on the tarmac, its crew patiently waiting to receive their new prime minister. When, eventually, Australia’s most famous redhead bursts onto the plane and bustles her way into the main cabin, her entrance is preceded with a flurry of apologies.
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m so sorry to have kept you all waiting!” she effuses to the uniformed crew, none of whom seem to know what to say to a prime minister begging their forgiveness.
She is dressed in a smart black pantsuit with an elegant string of pearls around her neck. The hair – that famous, voluminous mop – seems to want to break free of the styling to which it has been subjected for this day’s round of official engagements. Fresh from announcing a new asylum-seeker policy and only days after brokering a mining tax resolution, she has emissions trading, an election date announcement and a furious stint of campaigning looming on her to-do list.
“Let’s see. Right now, I’ve got an interview with you,” Julia says, officiously, pointing at me. “Then we’ve got some work to do,” she adds, nodding at her staff. “Let’s get this plane in the air.”
On her relationship…
People are always speculating about Tim, but I think it’s too much pressure for one man. It’s not that I have anything against the institution of marriage, it’s just the accumulation of a set of life choices that has led me to this point.”
And if Tim was to ask you to marry him? “I think that I would have to have that conversation with Tim first.”
So are you ruling out a wedding in The Lodge? “I’m not going to rule anything in or out, but I would say that any discussion about marriage would be about me and Tim, not about The Lodge, or being prime minister or elections or government, or any of those things.”
So would you live together in The Lodge as Australia’s first female, unmarried prime minister and her boyfriend? “Well, Tim and I are de-facto partners, so, yes, if I’m elected, then I would move to The Lodge and Tim would come with me. He lives in my home in Altona. So our home is together.”
And how do you think that would play in the electorate? “I really don’t think people would much care. I’m not preaching my life choices as a model for other people. It’s my life, I made my choices, I don’t regret my choices nor am I urging anybody to mimic them.”
Keen observers of “La Gillardine”, as ABC political commentator Annabel Crabb has dubbed her, will recognise the take-me-as-I-am persona that Julia has honed throughout her time in the political spotlight. She’s unapologetic about who she is, where she’s gotten to and the life experiences she’s had along the way.
“I have been asked before if I have tried marijuana and the answer to that is yes,” she says matter-of-factly. “In university, we would go out to the pub and perhaps drink more than we should have on occasions. But that would be the limit of it.”
What she thinks…
… on late-term abortion “It’s not the business of politicians to make sweeping statements on issues like these. People have to confront all sorts of different circumstances – profound disability, for example. For me, it’s about letting an individual make that decision with her family. It’s not my place to preach. I’m generally in favour of allowing women to make decisions and not having politicians make them for them.”
… on God
“I am not going to pretend a faith I don’t feel. For people of faith, I think the greatest compliment I could pay to them is to respect their genuinely held beliefs and not to engage in some pretence about mine.”
Your say: How important is a Prime Minister’s personal life? Do you think it has any impact on their ability to do the job? Share with us below.
Read more of this story in the August issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly.
Controversy surrounded her before she even set sail, but teen solo sailor Jessica Watson proved the critics wrong, writes Michael Sheather – and her mum was right there, all the way.
Jessica Watson, the 16-year-old, who has become the youngest person to sail non-stop and unassisted around the world, has a simple dedication to her book, True Spirit. “To everyone who followed and shared the voyage with me, thank you. And to Mum …”
“Mum was my first supporter,” says Jessica, now 17, who made a triumphant return to Sydney Harbour on May 15 this year, after her 210-day adventure.
“My father and everyone else took a long time to come on board, but it was Mum who sat down with me and listened while I told her I’m going to make this happen. The hardest part of this was convincing people that I could do it.”
Win an amazing health, beauty or fashion escape!
On the surface, Jessica Watson’s story is straightforward: a young girl who had a dream to sail around the world and, despite the greatest odds, devoted herself, mind and body, to make that dream a reality. Beneath this simple tale is another that is far more complex. That story is about a determined young woman whose dreams set her on a course through treacherous waters.
Yet beside her stood her mother, who had to learn not just to accept and trust, but that, sometimes, the best way to hold those you love close is to let them go.
“At first, I thought it might be just a phase she was going through, that Jess would be all enthusiasm for a while, but then move on to something else,” says Jessica’s mum, Julie, 46. “But that didn’t happen and I had to make a choice: was I going to support her or not? Very early on, I saw how determined she was and I knew Jessica was going to do it – in a bathtub if she had to. So, I thought, I might as well help as much as I can and make sure she does it safely.”
The decision to help Jess and support her brought with it a host of problems, not the least of which was a barrage of criticism which reflected on both Julie and her husband, Roger, as parents.
Many said Jess was too young and too inexperienced. Yet Julie’s confidence in her daughter never faltered.
“I can understand how people might have trouble relating to how I came to support Jessica’s decision,” says Julie. “It’s probably not a normal response from a mum. I always come back to the fact that if they had a daughter like Jessica, then they would believe in her, too, and I reckon they’d all make the same decision I did.”
Your say: Do you think Jessica’s parents made the right choice? Share with us below.
True Spirit by Jessica Watson, published by Hachette Australia, $35, is available now.
Read more of this story in the August issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly.
Australian icon Russell Crowe is set to be the Narrator of Ben Hur – the Stadium Spectacular at the ANZ Stadium in Sydney on 22 and 23 October.
Russell, who won an Oscar for his role in Gladiator at the 2000 Academy Awards, said “We all know the Australian saying, “Bigger than Ben Hur” and there is no doubt this show will be massive. It is an honour to be asked to participate, it’s going to be fun, that’s for sure, and I’m really looking forward to it. There’s a cast of 200, Chariot races, Pirate attacks. It’s huge.”
Ben Hur brings to life the Biblical epic made famous by the Academy Award winning Hollywood movie ‘Ben Hur’, starring Charlton Heston.
On the nightly news, she is cool and composed. Yet as Bryce Corbett discovers, you only have to put our new PM in stilettos and delve a little into her personal life to find the woman behind the politician.
Take a peek at what happened when the most powerful woman in Australia posed for The Weekly.
At 35, Natalie Imbruglia is finally at ease with herself. And, as she tells us, she’s changed her mind about motherhood.
Hit movies and records have endeared Natalie to the Australian people as one of our favourite daughters. She’s come a long way since Neighbours and Torn , now she’s more likely to be found on red carpets and music stages all over the world.
Her finger always on the fashion pulse has seen her grace the pages of fashion magazines and her trademark red lips and cropped hair cut have been copied by women everywhere.
Natalie adds star power to the Cannes Film Festival
Travelling in style
Fitness freak: Natalie in the London Marathon 2010
Feeling preppy: At a party in October 2009
A natural on stage: Performing at the London V Festival 2009
On the red carpet at the 2009 Brit Awards
Blondes have more fun: At the grand opening of The Palm in Dubai
Entree,Lunch
Natalie adds a touch of sparkle to the red carpet
Lady in red: At (another) Virgin event
Natalie back in Sydney for a store appearance
Natalie performs in The Netherlands
In 2005 Natalie and Daniel Johns holidays in Italy
Working the camera at a party in 2004
The way they were: Australia’s golden couple in 2003
At the Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas in 1998
Angelina Jolie demonstrated how she handles being a successful actress and a mother of six when she landed in Tokyo, Japan on Monday, July 26, with four of her six children in tow.
In town to promote her new movie Salt, the 35-year-old strolled through Narita International Airport with Maddox, 8, Pax, 6, Zahara, 5, and Shiloh, 4.
Despite stopping briefly to scold son Maddox for hitting his brother Pax, Ange looked relaxed in a silk black dress and thongs as she led her rainbow family through the airport hand in hand.
Missing were twins Knox Léon and Vivienne Marcheline who turned two on July 12, and their father Brad Pitt.
