Happy New Year with Bogart, Bacall and Tracy Anderson

Happy New Year to all from a sweltering Sydney oven.
I'm wilting in the heat. I find this city unbearable at this time of year. If you're lucky enough to live near the water it would ease the pressure but the inner-city is an airless, dusty battery-hen cage.
Wishing you a joyous New Year and I'm looking forward to 2011.
Here is my comfort book.

 I re-read it over Christmas in two days. Despite knowing it so well, I couldn't put it down. Amazing how you get a slightly different angle with the characters every time. It has such a sinister, dark edge to it. Clever, wonderful Daphne.

And no surprises as to what I've been doing (see Tracey Anderson DVD). That's my big new year resolution. Writing is such a fattening job.

If you follow my Facebook, you'll see that I'm not a fan of the fireworks at this time of year. I've had a mini-rant there about the waste of money, cost to the environment and the damage to the harbour, not to mention how it frightens animals. I found several others who also hate the fireworks. How about you? Are you pro the big bangs or, like me, believe it's fiddling whilst Rome burns?

With all the Green perceptions globally and the fears for how fragile the planet is, I'm dismayed that firework displays are still so popular. I've been criticised in the past for my anti-fireworks stance and told that I don't like people to enjoy magic.

Personally, I find far more magic, splendour and meaning in a simple blade of grass than in millions of dollars polluting the night skies with transient explosions of coloured lights - but that's just me. I'm not even a fan of going out on New Year's Eve. The Scribe and I spent a cosy evening with a bottle of Grand Marnier and The Big Sleep. We still aren't sure what exactly happened in that confusing, twisty movie but Bacall and Bogart are magic.
Off to try to catch some of the tiny breeze in our courtyard. xx
bogart and bacall image via google images

Magnificent, Marvellous, Mighty Monday and Daphne du Maurier

Cornwall is one of my favourite places on earth. Not least because it's where Daphne du Maurier lived. I have many happy memories of the Scribe and myself in Cornwall, including a thrilling night driving across a foggy Bodmin Moor right near Jamaica Inn.
I remember my friend who owned a lovely B&B in Boscastle where we stayed being perplexed by my love of all that is Daphne. "Isn't she a bit old hat?" she said.
Never! I think Daphne is forever a legend because of the riveting, haunting nature of her books and writing. She is the consummate storyteller and refused to follow trends of publishing. Her books such as Rebecca, My Cousin Rachel and Jamaica Inn invite numerous re-readings and you can often get a different interpretation of the story when you do so.
I can imagine how horrified Daphne would have been at the modern publishing industry with its Twittering, Facebooks, celebrity publishing and Blogging. She would not have been comfortable with the self-promotion demanded of writers these days. All she wanted to do was live by the sea in her beloved Cornwall and tell her tales. It sounds perfect to me.
Her life is fascinating and she is as complex as her stories. She remains one of my Holy Trinity of women writers, along with Enid Blyton and Agatha Christie.
And so on Magnificent, Marvellous, Mighty Monday let us celebrate the genius of Daphne du Maurier and her haunting, dark, psychological stories and books. May her original, gripping writing inspire us all to disregard modern trends and, if we are writers, to focus on a great story with unforgettable characters that keeps the reader turning the pages.

Writers should be read, but neither seen nor heard. Daphne du Maurier

daphne image source:

menabilly image source:

old boscastle image source: