I am posting this as I believe it is an important article. I can sympathize with Lorenzo Leviste as I can imagine, after a great deal of thought about the repercussions it would cause, I would probably do the same thing. Maybe not so publicly. But I would find it very hard to accept any … Continue reading Opinion: Why Lorenzo Leviste’s Open Letter to His Mother Loren Legarda Is a Big Deal
The Fascinating World of Caroline Kennedy
The Octopus Man
My husband, Ben Cabrera, had always been fascinated by people from all backgrounds, mainly as subjects for his photography and paintings. For some years before I met him, he had already established an artist/model relationship with a scavenger in the Tondo squatter area of Manila where he had been brought up. The scavenger’s name was … Continue reading The Octopus Man
TIMES THEY ARE A’CHANGING
“Come mothers and fathers throughout the land And don’t criticize what you don’t understand Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command Your old road is rapidly agin’ Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend a hand For the times they are a-changin’ “ This was the voice … Continue reading TIMES THEY ARE A’CHANGING
The Letter
There is a letter, quite a long one, in fact. Since I can’t show it to you, I shall describe it. It is handwritten, in ballpoint pen, in a sprawling, unfamiliar script, covering both sides of a sheet of graph paper, probably ripped from a child’s exercise book. You can see it was written in a hurry, perhaps in the dark, possibly in secret. I say “in secret” because, in places, words have extended over the edge of the page. Tear stains smudge occasional words into illegible scallops of fading blue ink.
The letter was given to me by a girl named Ruggia. She handed it to me the other day while I was having tea with her. As her mother left the room to brew another pot, Ruggia leaned over and whispered to me, “I wrote something for you last night.”
And with a swift glance toward her mother’s…
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8000 MILES & 8 TIME ZONES
(A young adventurer’s solo journey across the Soviet Union and Siberia during the height of the Cold War) Saturday April 20th 1968, Hotel Metropole, the Soviet Union “Are you sure you’re safe? I’ve been so worried about you.” After a disturbing number of clicks, my mother’s voice echoed down the line, “I haven’t been able … Continue reading 8000 MILES & 8 TIME ZONES
IT’S ONLY RITA BEING RITA
(a memoir of an enduring but unlikely friendship) “Who was that?” I asked when, after chatting for over an hour, Joe finally replaced the receiver. I was 19, newly arrived in New York, and had just moved into a studio above Carnegie Hall with a man 25 years my senior, Joseph X Dever, the very … Continue reading IT’S ONLY RITA BEING RITA
FOLLOWING THE HUNT
A Memoir of an Unusual Friendship by Caroline Kennedy I remember the moment so well. We were sitting across from each other, on red velvet banquettes, in a quiet corner of Annabel’s in Berkeley Square, indulging our taste buds in the nightclub’s famous marmalade ice-cream, when he suddenly blurted out: “I think I’ve got cancer?” … Continue reading FOLLOWING THE HUNT
DIAMONDS ON THE SOLES OF THEIR SHOES – PROLOGUE
This is the prologue of my historical novel, set in India and the Philippines in the 18th Century. Prologue: Sulu Archipelago, Philippine Islands, 15 April 1756 My head bowed I paused for a moment to compose myself. Then, with eyes closed, teeth clenched and muscles tensed against pain, I drew the ornate, double-bladed dagger slowly … Continue reading DIAMONDS ON THE SOLES OF THEIR SHOES – PROLOGUE
CARNEGIE HALL DAYS
My new home in New York was a studio above Carnegie Hall I shared with my boyfriend, society columnist Joseph X Dever. Our neighbours in some of the other studios included the jazz pianist and cabaret singer Bobby Short, the Italian impresario Gian Carlo Menotti, the famous milliner and NY street photographer Bill Cunningham, the … Continue reading CARNEGIE HALL DAYS
Caroline Kennedy: My Travels 