The Australian Women's Weekly February 2017

There’s something amazing about Australian women. Sure, it’s hard to generalise about 12 million individuals who come from all corners of our wide brown land, but I think there are traits beyond the global female values of love, family and sisterhood that Aussie women share: a sense of humour in the face of challenges; a fierce loyalty to friends; pride in the value of honest hard work; a certain pragmatic, determined get-on-with-it stoicism in tough times. We have our faults, too, a reluctance to prioritise ourselves, a generous dose of stubbornness (my husband is no doubt nodding vigorously at this. It’s the flipside of determination, I say!) and, let’s face it, we could probably do a better job as a nation of celebrating our high-achieving sisters. What evidence do I…

Letter of the month I was 15 when my father, Bryan Knight, was killed at Granville, travelling to work (Tracks Of Our Tears, AWW, January). My family, like most families and injured survivors, received no financial compensation. Most of those who did received paltry sums. We didn’t receive counselling, nor did the rescuers, many of whom suffered long-term post-traumatic stress. As the article pointed out, what made this event so shocking was the fact that it was entirely preventable. Painstaking research by ambulance officer Barry Gobbe revealed a wheel was reported as defective yet was permitted to travel another 45,000 kilometres before jumping the tracks. When Parliament resumed in 1977, there was no minute’s silence, not even a mention. At the 40th anniversary on January 18, we will gather to…

Crown Princess Mary’s twins turn six The Danish royal family has celebrated its precocious youngest members with the release of new portraits of Princess Josephine and Prince Vincent for the twins’ sixth birthday. Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary were blessed with the arrival of the two tiniest royals on January 8, 2011. Josephine, who is younger by 26 minutes, has since proven a playful character, who often steals the limelight from her more reserved brother. The next family birthday celebration will be for Crown Princess Mary, who turns 45 on February 5. Meryl Streep hits out at Donald Trump When you’re Meryl Streep, you can say what you like and she did just that at the Golden Globes. Meryl spoke in defence of diversity and freedom of the…

“ It was a quick turnaround from fury to being so much happier. ” Menopause was driving comedian and TV presenter Julia Morris nuts: “Nuts, I tell you!” She can laugh about it now, but 18 months ago, she felt absolutely overwhelmed. “I was thinking, I’m in an amazing job, I have a happy marriage, I’ve got healthy, happy children, I feel like I’m heading towards my career apex, so why am I furious all the time? Furious!” she says. Julia was furious with her husband, with her kids, with friends and colleagues, with other drivers on the road – especially with other drivers on the road. “If I let someone into traffic and they didn’t wave, I just wanted to follow them home and bash them to death. Make…

Maya Angelou, my wonderfully wise mother-sister-friend, once said, “When you know better, you do better.” Well, I thought I knew all there was to know about losing weight. Over the years, I’d interviewed every expert, I’d tried every diet. For one brief moment, back in 1988, it seemed like I’d found the secret: after a four-month liquid diet (which is a nice way of saying “fast”), I practically leapt onto the stage of my show to reveal my brand-new body in a pair of skinny minnie Calvin Klein jeans. To prove the point, I hauled out a little red wagon loaded with actual fat representing the pounds I’d starved myself to lose. And then – no pun intended – fell off the wagon. As, of course, I was bound to…

“ I left there very happily. I was ready to come home. ” “ Michael took on the role of chief enabler for Quentin to shine. ” Dee Dee. Where’s Dee Dee?” Lauren Bryce bellows as she storms into Grandma’s house, galloping through each room until she finally spies her target and launches herself into the arms of Dame Quentin Bryce. Lauren, an angelic seven-year-old dynamo – minus her two front teeth – and her little sister Ellen, four, are the first to arrive for The Weekly’s photo shoot. Soon six more of the Bryce grandchildren arrive, including head of the clan, willowy Alexandra Browning, 17, and her twin sisters, Lucinda and Claudia, 13, the three offspring of Quentin and Michael’s eldest daughter, Revy, then Charlie, six, who musters…