FOR AS LONG AS I CAN REMEMBER, I'VE LOVED DRESSING UP... This is me in a sailor hat (above), aged five, in the garden of our home in Melbourne. I was a very happy small child, the eldest of four-I have a younger sister and two brothers content to play on my own. My parents often referred to me as “Sunny Sam”. I was always cheerful and always indulged by a large number of aunties.
On Sunday afternoons, I had to perform a little cabaret. There was a camphor box-I still have it-in which I kept a diverse range of costumes. I'd appear and they'd all laugh and clap and then my mother would urge me to sing "Nymphs and Shepherds”. But I was too shy and had to go behind the curtain. Then she would say, "Pretend to be the wireless."
EDNA WAS NAMED AFTER A CHILDHOOD NANNY I ADORED.
But Mrs Everage's personality was more like my mother's and her friends'-intensely house-proud suburban wives. By 1958, when this photo (above) was taken, I'd begun to appear on Australian television.
Edna was very rudimentary in those days, dressed in a stretched twinset of my mother's, a discarded skirt and a conical hat she bought to go to the races but never wore. The hair, though, is my own! Gathered around this early evocation of Edna is the cast of the TV Review, broadcast live all over Australia.
THIS PHOTOGRAPH OF ME PAINTING ON AN AUSTRALIAN BEACH IS RATHER NAUGHTY.
The elastic had gone in my swimming trunks, something captured by a wicked friend of mine. I've been a lifelong enthusiast and I like to paint in oils. I also draw in pen and ink in restaurants. I'm having an exhibition in London later this year of those drawings. I'm rather a good caricaturist but then I suppose the characters I create on stage also fall into that category.
Denne historien er fra April 2022-utgaven av Reader's Digest UK.
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Denne historien er fra April 2022-utgaven av Reader's Digest UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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EVERY SECOND COUNTS: TIPS TO WIN THE RACE AGAINST TIME
Do you want to save 1.5 seconds every day of your life? According to the dishwasher expert at the consumer organisation Choice, there’s no need to insert the dishwashing tablet into the compartment inside the door.
May Fiction
An escaped slave's perspective renews Huckleberry Finn and the seconds tick down to nuclear Armageddon in Miriam Sallon’s top literary picks this month
Wine Not
In a time of warning studies about alcohol consumption, Paola Westbeek looks at non-alcoholic wines, how they taste and if they pair with food
Train Booking Hacks
With the cost of train travel seemingly always rising, Andy Webb gives some tips to save on ticket prices
JOURNEY TO SALTEN, NORWAY, UNDER THE MIDNIGHT SUN
Here, far from the crowds, in opal clarity, from May to September, the sun knows no rest. As soon as it’s about to set, it rises again
My Britain: Cheltenham
A YEAR IN CHELTENHAM sees a jazz festival, a science festival, a classical music festival and a literature festival. Few towns with 120,000 residents can boast such a huge cultural output!
GET A GREEN(ER) THUMB
Whether you love digging in the dirt, planting seeds and reaping the bounty that bursts forth, or find the whole idea of gardening intimidating, this spring offers the promise of a fresh start.
Under The GRANDFLUENCE Suzi Grant
After working in TV and radio as an author and nutritionist, Suzi Grant started a blog alternativeageing.net) and an Instagram account alternativeageing). She talks to Ian Chaddock about positive ageing”
Sam Quek: If I Ruled The World
Sam Quek MBE is an Olympic gold medalwinning hockey player, team captain on A Question of Sport and host of podcast series Amazing Starts Here
Stand Tall, Ladies
Shorter men may be having their moment, but where are the tall women?