Sara Hardy Writes

- and Louise Abbéma loved Sarah Bernhardt. True! I'm especially interested in historical lesbian relationships between women artists and I've just discovered this one. Sarah Bernhardt (pictured above) was an internationally mega-famous French actress who specialised in tragic roles during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Known worldwide as 'the divine Sarah' she played female and (unusual for the time) male roles. These included Camille, Tosca, Joan of Arc, Cleopatra and an unforgettable Hamlet. Born in Paris in 1844 to a Dutch Jewish unmarried courtesan and a wealthy Catholic Frenchman, Bernhardt received a Catholic education and displayed 'star' qualities from a young age. Given her unconventional upbringing, there was no hesitation about allowing Sarah to display her talents on stage. Sarah met Louise in 1874 and the pair remained very close until Sarah's death in 1923 (- many other affairs notwithstanding). Here's a self portrait by L...

Michelle de Kretser and I became friends when I was a mature student at University of Melbourne back in the late 1980s. Michelle was my tutor and, perhaps because I was a mature student with a theatre background, she took a liking to me and I of course liked and admired her. This was about a decade before she began to win major prizes for her novels. A few days ago, Michelle was announced as the winner of the prestigious Stella Prize - named after Stella Miles Franklin, author of My Brilliant Career. Michelle de Kretser's prize-winning novel is called Theory and Practice - and it's a fabulous read. But what I really want to record here is Michelle's acceptance speech. Please read it in full. It is very important, to all of us. Hello everyone. Thank you all so much for being here. The 2025 Stella Prize does my work great honour, and I’m so happy to accept it. I wish I could join you in person to celebrate all the long and shortlisted writers. As that’s not possible, I’m reco...

  Born in England, Edna Walling was deeply influenced by the beauties of childhood walks through her adored Devonshire landscape, especially the diverse natural glories of Dartmoor. Such influences would inform her Australian garden designs ever after. Even so, Edna embraced Australia and the Australian natural landscape with all her heart and ingenuity, and the affect of that embrace is still with us today.  Here follows a snippet of Edna's musings on Autumn in Victoria from A Gardener's Log, first published in 1948.      'There is so much to tell that I hardly know where to start: with the Russian cranberry jam; with the fun I am having taking cuttings of everything in the garden (everything with a reasonable chance of striking); with the joy the medlars have been this autumn, and the Cornus kousa , a dogwood that has outdone the pink-flowering C. florida rubra in leaf coloration this year.      The mistress of Lynton Lee [Lorna Fielden ] said, ...