The Australian Women's Weekly November 2017

It’s ironic that I sit here at my desk struggling to find the right words for this Editor’s Letter. Ironic because what I want to discuss this month is the power of words, or to be more precise, the power of letters. We were musing in a staff meeting about the lost art of handwriting in this increasingly digital age, so it felt extraordinary when a dear friend, Karla, did the most wonderful thing at her 40th birthday dinner. She presented each guest at the party with a personalised letter, sharing what it was that made them so special to her and why she felt blessed to have them in her life. Each one began with a simple proverb – to have gratitude and not share it is like wrapping…

Letter of the month I couldn’t help but notice how different Princess Charlotte looked to her parents and her brother, Prince George (Cambridge four – charm offensive, AWW, September). On taking a second look, I realised Princess Charlotte (far right) has the same eyes as her great-grandmother, the Queen (right). L. Dixon, via email. Sensational Shirley I have wonderful memories of seeing Shirley MacLaine dance and perform live. I left flowers at the theatre and received autographed photos as a thank you. Loved your article on this 83 years young legend (No fear, no regrets, AWW, October). As a 70-year-old man, many of us welcome stories of “senior trailblazers” that we can identify with. P. R. Webb, Bell Park, Vic. Edith Eger’s strength It was truly inspiring to read about…

Prince Harry proves anything is possible Prince Harry and girlfriend Meghan Markle looked very much in love as they held hands and whispered during their first official public appearance together at the Invictus Games in Toronto. The Suits actress, 36, was in the audience during the opening ceremony as Prince Harry, 33, told the wounded servicemen and women competing in the games they were “proving to the world anything is possible”. Later they were snapped watching a game of wheelchair tennis. Vale Lady Fairfax (1922-2017) Since her death in September, aged 95, Lady (Mary) Fairfax AC OBE, has been remembered as a consummate hostess; generous philanthropist; a notorious divorcee; a pioneering patron of the arts; an adoring parent with soaring ambitions for her children; and a key player…

“Chandler is so kind and so up for anything that comes his way.” It is an emotion as irresistible and irrational as it is all encompassing and consuming: young love, with all its passion and purity. You only have to look at Bindi Irwin, the 19-year-old daughter of Steve Irwin, to know that she is in love with her boyfriend Chandler Powell. It is present in the way she laughs, the way they hook their fingers together as they walk, but mostly it is in the way she smiles when he holds her hand. “I’m lucky, very lucky,” says Bindi, placing her left hand on Chandler’s and giving it a squeeze. “I’m lucky I have found the one, the person I want to spend all my time with. We’re both…

“George’s stint at prep school will be the first real test.” Behind the ornate, Victorian porticos of London’s most fashionable prep school, four-year-old Prince George of Cambridge is learning what matters. Here, in classrooms once reserved for the poor of the parish, Britain’s future King will be expected to show “kindness, courtesy, confidence and humility”. George’s arrival at Thomas’s Battersea says much about his parents’ priorities. William and Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, closely studied their options before choosing the $30,000-a-year school, known for its focus on producing what its prospectus calls “conscientious and caring citizens of the world”. For all its exclusivity, Thomas’s – sited in a fast-gentrifying borough sometimes known as South Chelsea – would once have been unthinkable as a school fit for an…

Franzsika and Alke* were bleary-eyed and exhausted. They had begun the day thousands of kilometres to the south in Western Australia. By the time they had reached Alice Springs at 11pm, the young women – one, aged 28, from Germany, the other, 21, from Finland – had reached the limits of their physical and emotional endurance. Too late for a motel, they parked in a well-lit cul-de-sac, where there were houses nearby, and hunkered down in their four-wheel drive. “I told her she’d be safe here.” The German woman, Franzsika, would be haunted by these words to her friend. After all, this was the heart of Australia, that boisterous, friendly, welcoming place. In the early hours, they were woken by banging on their four-wheel drive. As they tried to start…