KATHY LETTE

The celebrated comic writer is back with a new globetrotting novel written during Covid

Is a revenge caper just the escapism we need right now?

During lockdowns what did we most miss? Travel. I wanted to give readers a flight of fancy, taking them on an adventure through Egypt, the Maldives, the Serengeti and Europe. I concocted an odd couple caper which takes our two middle-aged heroines on a madcap chase around the world, following the money stolen by their bigamist husband.

Has the pandemic focused your writing or made it hard to concentrate?

I used the lockdown time to write this novel and adapt two of my other novels into film scripts – The Boy Who Fell to Earth, and HRT – Husband Replacement Therapy. Not being able to go out and swing from a chandelier with a cocktail between my teeth on a nightly basis proved pretty productive.

What are you reading now?

The classics got me through the pandemic. I left school at 16; the only examination I’ve ever passed is my cervical smear test. So, I used the time to devour all the wonderful novels I’ve missed. Middlemarch by George Elliott was my favourite literary tour de force.

Is there a book that made you love writing?

Everyone has a novel which first consumed their imagination. For me, it was Wuthering Heights. I was working as a governess on a sheep station out near Cobar at the time, but the Heathcliff-stomped windswept moors became more real to me than the dry, red plains of the outback.

What’s the best book you’ve read? That’s like asking what’s the best sex you’ve ever had – how to choose? A good writer is brave enough to put into words what we’re all thinking, but dare not articulate. Writers exorcise our collective demons. If I had to choose, my favourite authors are Jane Austen, Thackeray, Dickens, Anita Loos, Edith Wharton, Truman Capote, Nora Ephron, Salman Rushdie, Kate Grenville, Anne Tyler, Tim Winton and Tom Keneally.

A book that had a pivotal impact on your life?

Vanity Fair. This novel’s social satire is so sharp, it could shave your legs. The book you couldn’t finish?

The Kama Sutra. It gave me a sexual inferiority complex plus a thigh cramp and a groin strain.

A book you wish you had read but haven’t got to?

Kafka. It’s time I had a hoover of his oeuvre.

The book you are most proud to have written?

Puberty Blues, obviously, which has become an Aussie cult classic.

Your earliest reading memory? Snuggle Pot and Cuddle Pie, of course! Oh, and Peter Pan. My autistic son Jules describes me as a female Peter Pan and I think he’s right. I never want to grow up. Ageing is unavoidable, but growing old? Optional.

What books are on your bedside table?

Booker Prize-winning Tom Keneally’s Corporal Hitler’s Pistol, and Lisa Wilkinson’s scintillating memoir.

Till Death Us Do Part by Kathy Lette: Penguin Random House, $33