Colette’s cassoulet — Colette and French food

May 16, 2010 · Leave a Comment

Colette’s essence was one of greediness, and by that I don’t mean anything negative. Rather, I mean that she fully embraced life, and all of life’s pleasures. She spent most (if not all) of her life, from her engagement at only 17 years old, in relationships; as one relationship ended, so another began. I suspect that she was never single for very long (if at all), and that there was often an overlap between relationships, as being in a relationship didn’t stop her from having lovers. Colette argued that having... [Read more]

Drag and transgender in the 1900s

April 30, 2010 · Leave a Comment

Colette’s lover Missy / Max (Mathilde de Morny, the Marquise of Belboeuf) lived most, if not all, of her adult life in drag. Society in the 1900s was still rigidly divided into binaries: male/female, heterosexual/homosexual. Today, we are lucky enough not to have to define ourselves so strictly, but then, blurred boundaries, fluid identities, the rainbow spectrum of gender and sexuality, transgender identities, biculturalism, bisexuality, Adrienne Rich’s scale of lesbian continuum… all of these had yet to be... [Read more]

Colette’s infidelity — a natural greediness

March 22, 2010 · Leave a Comment

In Colette’s letters to her lover, Missy / Max, (“Lettres à Missy”, edited by Samia Bordji and Frédéric Maget), Colette often signed off by promising to be good, and sending her kisses and love to Missy and “the children” (their cats and dogs). I wonder if when Colette said she was being “good”, she was reassuring Missy / Max that she was being faithful. As well as having more sexual relationships than was socially acceptable in the early 1900s, Colette also had many lovers. During her six-year relationship... [Read more]

Ladies of Wellington

February 27, 2010 · Leave a Comment

On a new topic, I’ve been writing a series of ladies’ loos, “Ladies of Wellington”. They’ve been published in a local newspaper, The Wellingtonian, on a fairly regular basis since February 2009. The reviews are “real” reviews of ladies’ loos — public loos and loos in cafés, cinemas, restaurants etc — but are slightly tongue-in-cheek. Each review is between 100 and 200 words, and so far, about 30 reviews have been published. According to the editor, the reviews are popular,... [Read more]

Missy or Max? Tu or vous?

January 15, 2010 · Leave a Comment

The “tu / vous” distinction is very important in French, as a measure of intimacy between speakers and writers. Traditionally, “tu” was used only by adults to children, between close relatives, intimate friends, and lovers. Nowadays, the rigid distinction is easing, and many young people instantly use “tu” with each other, dispensing with that awkward step in a friendship of progressing from “vous” to “tu”. In the “Claudine” novels, the narrator reveals that, although she scandalizes polite society... [Read more]

Anaïs Nin

Anaïs Nin and Colette on YouTube

A couple of friends came over and videoed me reading aloud from my novel, Nights in Paris. One video shows me reading from The Slave of Bracelets, one of my chapters about Anaïs... [Read more]

publications and prizes

Colette