Housewife Superstar!; Advice (and Much More) from a Nonagenarian Domestic Goddess

By Danielle Wood

The life, advice, and many marriages of a ninety-something Tasmanian domestic goddess, the real-life Dame EdnaMarjorie Bligh is the ninety-five-year-old Martha Stewart you didn’t know you were missing. Does your goldfish have constipation? Feed it Epsom salts. Have you run out of blush? Cut a beet in half and slap it on your cheeks. Are there possums in your ceiling? Housewife Superstar will tell you how to get them out. Famous for never wasting a thing, Marjorie crochets her bedspreads from plastic bags and used panty hose, and protects the plants in her garden with bras. In 1958, upon entering the food and craft contests at her town show, she won in seventy-eight categories; the next year she won in seventy-two but was denied the trophy by jealous rivals.     Once divorced and twice widowed, Marjorie is, according to her colossal fan Barry Humphries (of Dame Edna fame), “no slouch in the matrimonial department.” Her first husband, Cliff, was loving but turned brutal. Her second marriage, to preacher and schoolteacher Adrian, was punctuated by endless love notes, breakfasts in bed, and territorial fights with his adult daughters. She snagged her third husband, Eric—a bus driver—with promises of fruitcake and flirtatious glances in his rearview mirror. Marjorie designed two homes and a museum devoted to her creations, worked for half a century as a journalist and columnist, and raised two sons, all while building a devoted following. Danielle Wood’s Housewife Superstar is an illuminating look at a treasure.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Publishers
• Release date: May 21, 2013
• ISBN: 9780865478893

Danielle Wood

Danielle Wood was born in Tasmania in 1972. Her first novel, The Alphabet of Light and Dark, won the 2002 Australian/Vogel Literary Award and was short-listed for the 2004 Commonwealth Writer’s Prize in the Best First Book category.

Reviews for Housewife Superstar!; Advice (and Much More) from a Nonagenarian Domestic Goddess

[newsieq · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

My sister recommended this book, one she stumbled across in her local public library. Marjorie Pearsall Blackwell Cooper Bligh is now almost 100 years old, living in her native Tasmania, and still a domestic diva. This is a story of her life, her marriages, her kids, her books, her newspaper columns – and it’s interspersed with nuggets of wisdom, advice, craft projects, recipe substitutions, how-to’s and poetry. What a conglomeration! Although this is a light read, I think Marjorie’s life seems rather sad: a divorce from an abusive spouse, the death of two husbands, and estrangement from one of her children. But I’m thinking Marjorie doesn’t look at her life that way. She has made her way, had the home of her dreams (twice), been feted for her domestic prowess (although some of the accolades seem a bit tongue-in-cheek), and sold LOTS of books. I thought the chapters investigating the question of “Was Marjorie or was she not the inspiration for Dame Edna?” were boring and unnecessary. Who cares? Marjorie is one of a kind, a survivor, an inspiration. I did not read any of her poetry, recipes or home remedies, so it didn’t take me very much time to finish the book.