Saturday, October 07, 2006

Things you may not want to know about Australia's former first lady

Since praising the wonderful Margaret Whitlam a few weeks back I have contemplated buying the new biography of her.

I happened upon a story about the book in a copy of the Australian Women's Weekly which is not my normal reading pleasure. Anyway you can trust the Weekly for a nice, non-controversial story. Imagine my surprise when I happened upon the following paragraph:


Certainly, a less secure person than Margaret would have stepped back from revealing some of the more intimate truths of a 64-year marriage - whether, for instance, she was able to have an orgasm on her honeymoon; whether Gough was, in fact, a good lover; and whether she ever fancied another man. On all three counts the answer is a resounding, "Yes".
Well, my giddy Aunt. This is not the sort of thing you expect in the Weekly! And Margaret! Gough! Their honeymoon! Crikey!

Now we know there might be more in that famous Nicholson Cartoon was after an earthquake during the Whitlam's trip to China in 75.

But wait there is more in the Weekly:

Not only was Gough a good lover, he actually read her poems by
Keats, Shelley and Byron when they were in bed together. "I suppose you'd call
it foreplay and I just thought it was lovely".

Gough you ole romantic devil you. Surely even die-hard Lib women would read that in envy. Bet Malcolm never did that for Tammy, and I'm damn sure John Howard doesn't...sorry can't finish this sentence. Will go and wash my mouth out.



3 comments:

Ms Batville said...

He he. When I first posted this I realised that I had a typo in the heading so that it read "Things you may not want to know about Australia's former first lay."

Maybe it read better that way.

meva said...

Hehehe. Good ol' Margaret! I read that Gough still returns home from the office each night at six-thirty announcing "J'arrive." But I still like him, anyway.

Oooh, and the thought of John and Janette... *shudder*

Susanne said...

Wow! Go Gough and Margaret!

I don't know that much about her, and I thought she might be a bit prudish, since she commented on John and Jannette holding hands, but I guess I was wrong.

I would love someone to seduce me by reading the Romantics. :)