| In this lethal and often hilarious collection of interviews, Antonella
Gambotto has used her wit, skill and absolute mastery of her favourite
medium to elicit astounding information from some of the world's most
intriguing personalities. Interviewees are Tori Amos, Jeffrey Archer, The
Benetton Formula One Team, Warwick and Joanne Capper, Deepak Chopra, Iva
Davies, Jerry Hall, Rose Hancock-Porteous, Charlton Heston, Derryn Hinch,
HRH Princess Haya bint Al-Hussein, Linda Jaivin, Erica Jong, Mark Matousek,
Colleen McCullough, Trent Nathan, Gene Simmons and Austen Tayshus.
The
accompanying essays and reviews - 'Numb and Number', 'Releasing the Inner
Moron', 'Big Swinging Dictums', 'Taking it Like a Man', 'Partner of my
Dreams', 'The Kitchen's of Madison County', 'Pink Triangle and Circular
Argument' and 'In Remembering Fire' - deal with everything from
alcoholism to pornography and suicide, and reflect the wisdom of R. H. Tawney's
caution: 'Onions can be eaten leaf by leaf, but you cannot skin a tiger paw
by paw, vivisection is its trade and it does the skinning first.'
"Gambotto's skill lies in listening to and then - in most cases - summarily
dismissing the personal mythology of her interviewee. she asks questions
that challenge and disturb them and invites us to consider the implications
of their not always straightforward answers ...the Capper interview is
possibly the best piece in this quite brilliant book ... Gambotto is the
MENSA mannequin, a shit-stirrer, a show-off, a fearless, funny, beautiful
woman who never sticks to the rules." Tegan Bennett, The Weekend Australian
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