Behind the lack of blogging on my website over the past year, I have had a secret project. I have been very busy completing a 100,000 word manuscript telling the story of how I have pulled myself back from the deepest pit of grief following my husband Olivier Foubert’s death to patch myself up […]
Le premier mot…
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Jockey Michelle beats racing discrimination
Is there a greater thrill in November than enjoying a girlie Melbourne Cup luncheon when trailblazer jockey Michelle Payne became the first woman to win at Flemington? And she was riding my Sweep pick – Prince of Penzance! It’s such a cracker of an Aussie story. And the Lyceum club crowd cheered when she publicly […]
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Tourists find Katmandu in recovery mode
My Sydney friend has taken her first post-retirement trip to Nepal to do her bit to boost the tourist industry in that impoverished country,which has suffered from massive earthquakes in May and June this year killing more than 8600 people and destroying more than 500,000 homes. Here is her first report. “Well, we are here in […]
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The Belier Family – fab feel-good French story
The French film, The Belier Family (La Famille Bélier) by director Eric Lartigau makes you think deeply about the disadvantages of being deaf – and it makes you cry – but mostly it makes you laugh. No wonder La Famille Bélier was France’s number One Film of the Year. Because the feel-good story about a […]
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Powerful women as change agents in politics and media
Recent appointments and events reflect powerful women at the helm of politics and media. Powerful Google executive, Michelle Guthrie, has been appointed the new head of the ABC following Mark Scott, who has been managing director since 2006. She has called her new role with the public broadcaster as an “ extraordinary platform’’ to keep […]
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Ageing increases risk of breast cancer
It was the telephone call women most fear: The woman speaking calmly to me at the other end of my mobile is advising that I need to return to BreastScreen SA because my rec ent mammogram had shown “cellular abnormality’’. The mind plays terrible tricks with such news and within a noni-second I have imagined […]
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Publication deal heralds new chapter
Hello everyone, The stars above us must be in alignment because March has brought astounding happenings to set my life on a new trajectory. Hoorah! I have sold my manuscript, Bon Voyage Mesdames, to Harlequin Publishers. Adding to the excitement, my agent, Selwa Anthony advised me of this splendid deal a few days after Writers […]
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Robyne thanks her dad for happy childhood
Robyne Laird Jones wrote this emotive tribute to her dad and she was happy to have it reproduced on my website. Straight from the heart, it reveals the typical Australian childhood she and her siblings enjoyed – One quite different to mine, noted in my My Journal blog in November 2015. “It is with a broken […]
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A second book is in the bag
The stars must be in alignment because March has brought astounding happenings to set my life on a new trajectory. Hoorah! I have sold my manuscript, Bon Voyage Mesdames, to Harlequin Publishers. Adding to the excitement, my agent, Selwa Anthony advised me of this splendid deal a few days after Writers Week here in Adelaide. […]
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A pictorial collection of our journey to France
What better way to illustrate the exciting journey I experienced with my friend Jane in France than to show a few photographs. No explanation needed for the first photograph…The Eiffel Tower, or in French Tour Eiffel. French chanteuse sings Hymn to Piaf in a 13th century cellar far below the streets of Paris on the 50th […]
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Tensions of the “Odd Couple” a highlight says Arts critic Samela Harris
There is really only so much I can say about my own book, Farewell My French Love, released today into all good bookshops Australia-wide. So, I have called on a former colleague, arts critic and blogger extraordinaire, Samela Harris to read my book and write a review without fear of favour. And it is interesting how […]
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Let’s talk about grief and loss and love
Am over the moon that Australia’s national paper, The Australian, ran a review on my memoir Farewell My French Love last weekend. Published by Harlequin’s new arm HQ non-fiction, it was one of four reviews under the heading “Intrepid Women of the World.” I was one of those four women. And it swelled my pride […]
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Accolade in OZ review for FMFL memoir
Am over the moon that Australia’s national paper, The Australian, ran a review on my memoir Farewell My French Love last weekend. Published by Harlequin’s new arm HQ non-fiction, it was one of four reviews under the heading “Intrepid Women of the World.” I was one of those four women. And it […]
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A Giant Leap into the New Media
Delighted to share this YouTube video teaser which captures the funny side of my bitter/sweet memoir Farewell My French Love – how my travels through France with my Sydney friend Jane revealed profound differences over glorious French food. So proud of my grandson Samuel who filmed our “discussion” over a glass of wine in Chez […]
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Bastille Day brings valuable radio talk
Bastille Day was a great chance to promote my new memoir Farewell My French Love, when I wrote and did a media distribution on a funny take on the French people and their idiosyncrasies. And how lucky was I when the popular Sydney radio station, 2UE, picked up my release and telephoned for a chat […]
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Time to Talk about my memory on Community TV
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Late-summer garden brings joy and pride
It’s best to be honest about my garden which spreads around my newish home in Belair. Probably, it’s about 600 square metres in size and gives me immense joy. However, I must quote words from Charles Barr published in a little anthology Up The Garden Path by Laura Stoddart where he is quoted as saying: […]
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French Medieval masterpiece a must to see
The rarest of French Medieval masterpieces – the six-panel tapestries known as The Lady and the Unicorn – will be on show at the Art Gallery of NSW until June 24, 2018. On loan from the Musee de Cluny also known as the Musee National de Moyen Age in Paris, the 500-year-old French national treasure is the […]
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Entertaining friends – a creative act of love
For the past 16 years, I have kept a Hostess Book which capture the many dinner parties and celebrations held in my various homes, both as a divorcee, a married woman and, finally, as a widow. When I was married to my lovely Frenchman, Olivier, dinner parties were grand occasions and the order of les rapas […]
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Two decades wring change
Merry Christmas to you all. And a Happy New Year in a few weeks when we herald 2020. How time flies, and how it sweeps in profound change, whether we like it or not. It is hard to look so far back to the beginning of the decade, let alone the turn of the 21st […]
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More Pages to Explore .....
