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'Take two reality pills and call me in the morning.
'Swine Flu. Financial meltdown. It’s been a bad year for pigs and pigs in suits. The only thing for it is a good dose of Catherine Deveny, who each week in The Age puts everything into perspective with her trademark iconoclastic wit.
'Free to a Good Home includes her thoughts on gifted children and breakfast television, sexy billboards and the bill of rights. She reflects on her youngest child’s first day at school, and on how to be happy in hard times.
'Fearlessly funny and always provocative, Deveny is the perfect antidote to the modern world’s ills.
'Can anyone explain why I did this? I went to the chemist and bought this crap I put on my face to make me look younger. I put the jar on the counter. The chemist girl said, ‘Is this stuff any good?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ She said, ‘Really?’ I said, ‘I’m sixty.’ Eyes like saucers, mouth agape, she gasped, ‘OH MY GOD! Sixty! Toula! Fatima! Kelly! Come and check out this old lady. She’s sixty!’ So the other chemist girls scurried over and after a bit of oohing and aahing one said, ‘Oh my God! Sixty? You look like you’re forty-five!’
'I’m forty. Chemist girls, one. Smart-arse, zero.' (Publication summary)
Notes
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Dedication:
- For Sam Stafford, a true friend and a beautiful man.
- Daniel Burt, Chris Feik and Michael Lallo: I'd take a bullet for any of you.
- Louise Fox, Caitlin Crowley and Marie-Louise Walker: you many not be Charlie's Angels, but at times I think you may be mine.
- Clare Somers, Monique Ryan, Bridget Costello and Joanne Baker: thank you.
- P. S. Sally Heath, you deserve a medal.
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Contents not indexed separately.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Large print.
Works about this Work
-
In Short : Nonfiction
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 2-4 April 2010; (p. 39)
— Review of Free to a Good Home 2009 selected work column ; The Rich Man : A Son's Journey to Discover His Real Father 2010 single work biography -
[Review] Free to a Good Home
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: Bookseller + Publisher Magazine , Summer 2009-2010 vol. 89 no. 5 2009; (p. 39)
— Review of Free to a Good Home 2009 selected work column -
Non-Fiction
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 18-19 December 2009; (p. 20)
— Review of Free to a Good Home 2009 selected work column
-
Non-Fiction
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: The Age , 18-19 December 2009; (p. 20)
— Review of Free to a Good Home 2009 selected work column -
[Review] Free to a Good Home
2009
single work
review
— Appears in: Bookseller + Publisher Magazine , Summer 2009-2010 vol. 89 no. 5 2009; (p. 39)
— Review of Free to a Good Home 2009 selected work column -
In Short : Nonfiction
2010
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 2-4 April 2010; (p. 39)
— Review of Free to a Good Home 2009 selected work column ; The Rich Man : A Son's Journey to Discover His Real Father 2010 single work biography