Puberty Blues author Kathy Lette talks travel

FORMER Cronulla surfie and co-author of Puberty Blues, Kathy Lette, loves living across the fence from a well-known dame in London, writes Chanel Parratt

BEACH BUM: Author Kathy Lette finds it liberating to be on a beach in Brazil where there’

“I ENDED up living here by mistake,” she says as she describes how she fell in love with human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson in London.

Lette was 17 when she wrote Puberty Blues. A best-selling book, then a film and now a second TV series.

Is it as thrilling to see it come to life now as it was when you were 17?

I’m currently enduring my fourth puberty. First there was my actual puberty, then the book, then the Bruce Beresford film, and then the TV series. As I’m now menopausal, it’s terribly hormonally confusing! But I’m very proud of that little book. And the new TV series has captured the era perfectly. It’s like a home movie. I’m torn between hilarity and nausea (laughs). The series brilliantly portrays the sexism of the time. The boys I grew up with disproved the theory of evolution – they were evolving into apes. The book is like straight Vegemite, no butter. It’s also a literary contraceptive.

Where do you live in London?

I live in West Hampstead.

Barry Humphries is my neighbour. His house backs on to mine. Whenever he gets back from a trip he emails me and says “Kathy dear, I’m poised at your rear entrance”.

What destinations are on your wish list?

The Galapagos Islands. I want to go to a place where for once, I’m not the weirdest creature.

Favourite place to travel?

Kathy Lette with Puberty Blues actresses Ashleigh Cummings (left) and Brenna Harding.

The Maldives, a necklace of 1190 coral islands.

If your 17-year-old self could go on a girls’ holiday, where would she go?

Brazil. Girls worry so much about body image. There’s so much pressure to be thin. But not on the beaches of Rio de Janeiro. The bigger the bottom the better.

Everyone from teenage girls to grannies parades along the sand in G-string bikinis, with buttocks so big they could have their own postcode. It’s totally liberating.

Puberty Blues, Wednesday 8.30pm on Channel 10. Puberty Blues by Kathy Lette and Gabrielle Carey, published by Vintage is available in store and online.

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