Celebrating 50 Years

Bryan Brown, Tom Keneally & Jennifer Byrne

220 friends and fans turned up to the Westin Hotel to celebrate Man Booker Prize winner Tom Keneally's fifty years of publishing books. Plenty of amusing speeches by Richard Flanagan, David Williamson,  Bryan Brown and director Fred Schepis.
It's amazing to think that when Tom wrote his first book Australia had no such things a literary agent and books were sent to the UK to be published,
No wonder as Richard Flanagan pointed out that the great Henry Lawson said that anyone contemplating a career as a writer in Oz should fetch a revolver and shoot themselves.

David & Kirsten Williamson with Richard Flanagan,        ABC's Tony Jones                         & Fred Schepisi

 Delighted US and UK agents sent congratulatory videos as did Kathy Lette but the most impressive was from director Steven Spielberg (below) who credited Keneally with Spielberg winning a host of Academy Awards for his adaption of Tom's Schindler's Ark.

Topless : Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall !

"Don't do it !" warns Barry Humphries.

Barry was dispensing advice last night at a reception held by Prince Charles and Camilla at Clarence House, their London residence.                                                                                   

And another guest Kylie Minogue had some harsh words for Camilla who has never visted Australia before :"naughty Duchess!".
There were also a group of semi naked New Zealanders dancing for the royals as our video shows (watch for the New Zealand High Commissioner who joins them at the back!)
Guests included a coterie of Australian and New Zealand ex-pats in honour of the royal pair's visit to the colonies in November. They will visit Sydney and Melbourne where Camilla will present the cup to the winner of the famous Melbourne Cup to be held on Tuesday the 6th November.

Humphries warned the Duchess to refrain from standing topless on a hotel balcony :"you never know who could be lurking in the bushes" he said.

Also at the reception :wobble board enthusiast Rolf Harris and writer Kathy Lette who presented Camilla with a jar of Vegemite.

Re-live Your Puberty

Your Puberty Blues that is.
 The 1981 film that centered around teenage angst on Sydney's Southern beaches has had a new lease of life with the success of the Network Ten TV series of the same name.

Beyond Puberty Blues will be held this Saturday evening at the Bondi Pavilion from 6pm with a special screening of the movie and some of the stars in attendance including Nell Schofield. The night will be a tribute to a co-star Jad Capelja to aid Beyond Blue, the very worthy organisation that provides aid and help to depression sufferers. Tickets are only $28 for what promises to be a great night.
 
 But hurry, tickets are going fast.
October 13th 2012. The Bondi Pavilion Theatre, 6pm – 11pm  Click HERE to buy tickets.
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Meanwhile one of the writers of Puberty Blues Kathy Lette has been out and about in London and attended the launch of Salman Rushdie's new book Joseph Anton which recounts the years he spent under the threat of death.

Rushdie who lived for ten years in a series of 'safe houses' spent time living in the attic of Kathy and her husband barrister Geoffrey Robertson's North London home.

right : author Salman Rushdie at his book launch with Stephen Fry and Kathy Lette

Kathy Lette-Swinging from The Chandeliers

Today is Kathy Lette is 53 and she plans to celebrate her birthday with hubby Geoffrey Robertson QC at London's Savoy Hotel where she says she will be "swinging from the chandeliers".

Kathy has been telling the London Evening Standard about her recent encounter with a would be handbag snatcher in London's East End:
"I think adrenaline kicked in. He grabbed it, but I wasn't going to let him have it, so I fought back, I grabbed it back from him. The handle broke, but at least I got it back.
"I just held on for grim death. I couldn't really give chase afterwards because I had my high heels on. Taking a woman's handbag, it is like you are violating her very body.
"From now if I walk in the East End the only handbag I will carry will be in the form of the arm of a really burly bloke."

Kathy had been on her way to a literary event when the mugger struck and attempted to bag the Moschino handbag. As the writer says :
"You don't come between an Australian woman and her handbag".
PS : Kathy's first husband was Kim Williams who has just become the overlord of News Corp in Australia.

Letteing The Side Down

The picture below of  Puberty Blues author Kathy Lette in her corgi dress giving HM The Queen a good laugh has now swept the world and cements Kathy's place as one of the best Antipodean self publicists in the UK.

Barry Humphries at Kathy's launch

Richard E.Grant

Lette was at Buckingham Palace for a reception hosted by Her Maj before her final trip Down Under. The Queen was heard to comment that she didn't realise there so many Australians in Britain which really shows she obviously doesn't get out much. Immigration records show there are close to 600,000 Aussies at present residing in the UK.

Kathy is quoted today telling a newspaper columnist about her trip to Buckingham palace : "As we’re all convict stock, I bet they spent all day hiding the silverware, don’t you? At least I made the Queen laugh. A first, I’m sure."
"The only funny thing was that the Palace had under-estimated the party potential of a bunch of wild colonials. We were practically swinging from the chandeliers. I gave the Queen a matching corgi scarf, so I do hope she’s going to wear it Down Under. I was very relieved that nothing mated with my leg, in that outfit."

The Shuttle has encountered Kathy and her husband barrister Geoffrey Robertson ( having shared a desk with Geoffrey in High School) many times on their visits to Sydney, the last being the launch of her book Mad Cow at the Boy Charlton Pool where actor Richard E.Grant did the honours.

Kathy's book launch in Sydney

Chatting to Robertson about Kathy's books he told us: "they don't sell that well in the UK  but she is a massive seller in Germany" . Asked to elaborate as to why this may be Geoffrey said "Kathy writes books that send up the British and the Germans lap them up. They have a more base sense of humour than the Brits as well so she seems in tune with them !".
The last time the Shuttle encountered the Queen in London at an official function was a reception at Australia House in the Strand many years ago. One aging journalist from Melbourne was there and was known to be not only a drunk but incontinent as well , sometimes forgetting to wear his protective pads. A group of us watched from the sidelines in horror as the man chatted to Prince Phillip, a puddle of piss gathering around their feet. When Phillip walked away we could hear his shoes squelching.