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MY GORGEOUS LIFE: An Adventure
Dame Edna Everage - housewife, megastar, investigative journalist, social anthropologist, children's book illustrator, chanteuse, swami, monstre sacre, polymath, adviser to British royalty, grief counselor, spin doctor, and gifted woman in the world today. The seeds of stardom were planted in Melbourne, Australia when her career as a performing artiste was strictly a cult following. In the 1960's, she did a series of one-woman shows and occasional stage and TV appearances in England with Barry Humphries. She spends her time visiting world leaders and jet-setting between her homes in Malibu, London, Sydney, and Switzerland. Her hobbies are having afternoon tea with Stephen Hwking and doing compassionate photography.
292 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1989
About the author
Dame Edna Everage
12 books8 followersDame Edna Everage was a character played by Australian dadaist-comedian Barry Humphries. As Dame Edna, Humphries has written several books including an autobiography, My Gorgeous Life, appeared in several films and hosted various television shows (on which Humphries has also appeared as himself and other alter-egos).
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
July 6, 2009
Read this while "hearing" Dame Edna's voice in your head - you'll be chuckling and laughing out loud. Absolutely delightful. Where else to put this book but on a shelf titled Over the Top?
November 18, 2008
I've been a fan of Dame Edna's for years and I have to say that this faux autobiography is one of the funniest books I have ever read. Starting from her humble beginnings (with mauve hair even then) we see our lovely Edna blossom into womanhood, marriage and motherhood---though she rarely has time to properly look after the kids because of her hectic and famous life. As an advisor to the rich, famous and royal (a spin doctor, in her words, to the Queen), Edna becomes a superstar in her own right---struggling with her troublesome childhood friend, Madge Allsop, who Edna lets us know, is a burden a good deal of the time! Edna deals with many dramas----her eccentric children, her husband with his desperate prostrate problem and the trials of being so easily recognizable to the general public. If you wanna read a book with a great deal of laughs, try to find a copy of this book. You won't be disappointed.
July 23, 2007
Hello Possums! A must-read for the seekers of celebrity.
September 5, 2022
This purported autobiography, published in 1989, was written in the persona of Dame Edna Everage, the character Barry Humphries created for a skit in the 1960s. Supposed to be a one-off performance the character took on a life of its own and Barry Humphries made a successful international career playing this larger-than-life character. Autobiographical in form this book is actually a satirical look at Australian middle-class women, Humphries’ ideas of their implausible ambitions, unrealistic dreams and doubtful futures.
The book reads as though you are actually listening to her tell it, the prose is as vivid as she is in performance and equally fantastical. Describing an incident in her childhood when her mother locked her in a box room for hurting her friend Daphne, “I think I may have been `naughty’ that afternoon though some of my psychiatrist friends tell me that there is no such thing as naughtiness any more and that I was probably portraying early signs of brilliant Megastardom when I gave my little playmate, Daphne, a Chinese burn behind the incinerator.” During that afternoon she evidently found proof that her grandmother had been a convict, a fact generally something to hide at that time, but something to be “a lot less coy about” when the book was published. A great deal of the humor is not just from her fantastical stories about her origins, born with mauve hair, a grandmother who discovered Australia only to have it claimed by Captain Cook, and plucked from obscurity as a simple housewife, but also her commentary on current affairs in Australia.
The premise of the book is her search for her origins, so it moves backwards forwards between her current existence of `superstardom’ and memories of the humble past from which she emerged to be a world figure. Her companion, assistant and partner in a very unequal LTR (live together relationship) is her school friend, the adoring and subservient, Madge who Dame Edna treats as a servant, labels as ignorant and generally treats despicably. “Let’s face it, few of us are lucky enough to improve with age though I am one of those lucky exceptions. Madge isn’t. Fascinated I saw her push open our old school gate which neighed rustily. I saw an insignificant, middle-aged woman on the wrong side of unattractive.”
Equally scathing are her descriptions of her husband “Lord Everage of Monee Ponds” She says that he is world famous though not for anything he did, “Fame was nevertheless thrust upon him, or more accurately, up him, in the form of the world’s first moderately successful prostate transplant.” Her descriptions of what he goes through are nauseating in their details. When a lifeguard he had saved her life at the beach but the romance of their courtship and marriage gets obliterated by the endless details of the poor man’s later dependence tethered to a mechanical prostate (really!).
What may seem funny on the stage for ten minutes really does get old when it takes up a 285-page book. Dame Edna’s comments about middle class aspirations are quite funny and to the point – expecting to be plucked out of obscurity is not an unknown dream of a bored housewife but her racial, `tinted’ people, and antisemitic comments remind you how long ago this book was written. I watched a few of her shows on YouTube and noticed that that aspect of the act has been toned down. The name-dropping gets a bit old too, from the Dalai Lama to the late-lamented Olivia Newton John, no one can apparently function without the Dame’s advice.
All in all, squirmingly funny for a while, but not for the length of a book.
The book reads as though you are actually listening to her tell it, the prose is as vivid as she is in performance and equally fantastical. Describing an incident in her childhood when her mother locked her in a box room for hurting her friend Daphne, “I think I may have been `naughty’ that afternoon though some of my psychiatrist friends tell me that there is no such thing as naughtiness any more and that I was probably portraying early signs of brilliant Megastardom when I gave my little playmate, Daphne, a Chinese burn behind the incinerator.” During that afternoon she evidently found proof that her grandmother had been a convict, a fact generally something to hide at that time, but something to be “a lot less coy about” when the book was published. A great deal of the humor is not just from her fantastical stories about her origins, born with mauve hair, a grandmother who discovered Australia only to have it claimed by Captain Cook, and plucked from obscurity as a simple housewife, but also her commentary on current affairs in Australia.
The premise of the book is her search for her origins, so it moves backwards forwards between her current existence of `superstardom’ and memories of the humble past from which she emerged to be a world figure. Her companion, assistant and partner in a very unequal LTR (live together relationship) is her school friend, the adoring and subservient, Madge who Dame Edna treats as a servant, labels as ignorant and generally treats despicably. “Let’s face it, few of us are lucky enough to improve with age though I am one of those lucky exceptions. Madge isn’t. Fascinated I saw her push open our old school gate which neighed rustily. I saw an insignificant, middle-aged woman on the wrong side of unattractive.”
Equally scathing are her descriptions of her husband “Lord Everage of Monee Ponds” She says that he is world famous though not for anything he did, “Fame was nevertheless thrust upon him, or more accurately, up him, in the form of the world’s first moderately successful prostate transplant.” Her descriptions of what he goes through are nauseating in their details. When a lifeguard he had saved her life at the beach but the romance of their courtship and marriage gets obliterated by the endless details of the poor man’s later dependence tethered to a mechanical prostate (really!).
What may seem funny on the stage for ten minutes really does get old when it takes up a 285-page book. Dame Edna’s comments about middle class aspirations are quite funny and to the point – expecting to be plucked out of obscurity is not an unknown dream of a bored housewife but her racial, `tinted’ people, and antisemitic comments remind you how long ago this book was written. I watched a few of her shows on YouTube and noticed that that aspect of the act has been toned down. The name-dropping gets a bit old too, from the Dalai Lama to the late-lamented Olivia Newton John, no one can apparently function without the Dame’s advice.
All in all, squirmingly funny for a while, but not for the length of a book.
May 31, 2023
I really tried to like this book that someone recommended to me; but alas, I gave up after just a few chapters - not my "cup of tea." I didn't find it as amusing as I had anticipated.
August 3, 2007
Devotees of Dame Edna Everage will adore this tell-all autobiography of the Australian "megastar" in rhinestone-sequined glasses. Yes, it's all here -- her meteoric rise from a simple housewife to international celebrity stardom. You can practically hear Edna (AKA Bary Humphries) stretching out those vowels and giving her inimitable cackle. You have to be a bit of a Dame Edna expert to follow all the in-jokes, but, then, if you aren't a Dame Edna fan, then why the hell would you be reading this book?
May 29, 2018
Fans of The Great Dame will just love this book, and I really think the audio version read by the Megastar herself is the best way to enjoy it.
Hilarious!
Hilarious!
March 21, 2025
This was a rollicking good read. Dame Edna is a powerhouse in the entertainment business. Any of her fans will certainly love this. If you can hear Dame Edna in your head, you will have a fantastic time as she narrates her life from being an obscure Australian housewife to universally loved megastar.
Reading it in 2023, some of the humor may be a bit dated, and thinking may have changed...but it's quite fun to escape into this book and just get lost in the world of Dame Edna.
Reading it in 2023, some of the humor may be a bit dated, and thinking may have changed...but it's quite fun to escape into this book and just get lost in the world of Dame Edna.
October 22, 2024
I found this book hilarious. “Sorry, but I did”. Especially the first half when the humour was still novel. Lots of references to 1950’s and ‘60’s culture may make it more difficult for younger and non- Australian readers to appreciate the humour.
June 20, 2018
Thirty years ago a nerdy girlfriend told me about this book. I scoffed. Now that I'm older I think old ladies are funny. This satire on an old lady is even funnier than the real thing.
July 28, 2011
Quite awful. As a writer Dame Edna makes a very good television personality.
January 30, 2012
Dame Edna's humour and wit shine through this fictional autobiography. I read this book first as a teenager when it came out and enjoyed many times since.
March 23, 2013
Funny Lady and a good read
Read
May 5, 2018funny, possums!
brillliant, always makes me laugh out loud
and again April 2018
brillliant, always makes me laugh out loud
and again April 2018
February 12, 2014
Such wit and humour. I love her.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews