For this week’s book cast of the week, we welcome in the hilariously relatable & human ‘Cafe Latte’ (because she’s frothy on the top with a hidden macchiato punch underneath), Kathy Lette.
Kathy is joined by Imogen Edwards-Jones as we talk Kathy’s latest book ‘Husband Replacement Therapy’. Launching a book during lockdown for Kathy has not exactly gone to according to plan. Kathy’s original idea was to celebrate her book launch in typical Kathy Lette-fashion: being carried into the party by a throng of men in white budgie smugglers covered in sequins. But instead, Kathy is launching her book over Zoom at odd hours in the morning.
Although despite the lack of fanfare, ‘Husband Replacement Therapy’ could not have come at a more needed time. When the world is stuck indoors with their significant others in desperate need for an escape & a well deserved laugh.
Before we dive in, here’s a great quote from Kathy to all women:
“Have your second act. Enjoy it. Be frivolous, have fun – you totally deserve it. Don’t let your guilt gland throb. Adventure before dementia! Go for it girls.”
Kathy Lette
In this episode, we talk:
- Cougar Cruises – Yes, they are a real thing. Boat cruises with females over 50 who pay for a vacation, and younger eligible men who get on the boat for free.
- Ruby in Husband Replacement Therapy’s incorrect diagnosis of pancreatic cancer which leads herself & her sisters on a cougar cruise to celebrate her (fake) dying days.
- The increase in divorce rates in China that were initiated by women after the COVID-19 crisis swept the nation.
- Life on the other side of menopause being an opportunity to take on the patriarchy & conquer the world (whilst wearing your liberating invisibility cloak).
- Sex getting better as you get older, as you’re at ease in your own skin.
- Kathy’s first novel ‘Puberty Blues’, which was almost autobiographical, written when she was an 18 year old on growing up as a surfy girl on the beaches of Sydney. Young surfer men in ‘Puberty Blues’ era who were “disproving the theory of evolution” as they were “evolving into apes”.
- Going from “non-entity to notoriety” overnight after Puberty Blue’s publishing, with a “seismic scandal” that rippled across Australia as a result of the coming of age novel.
- “Rack off you fish-faced mole” – the Australian humour & lingo in Puberty Blues.
- Kathy’s books serve as “manuals” & lessons learned for the next group of women coming after her.
- Kathy on feminism: “disarm with charm” by surreptitiously slipping in messages for other women.
- Kathy’s role as an icon for women over the generations, from teenage Aussies, to husband replacing cougars.
- Women’s humour & how it differs to men, with women slipping off their emotional underwear in a few seconds.
- Adventure before Dementia – “carpe the hell out of diem”, Kathy’s new outlook on life.
- Kathy making the call with lockdown between staying with her 88 year old mother in Australia, or taking care of her 29 year old Autistic son in London.
Buy Husband Replacement Therapy from your local Bookseller:
