Claire Halliday is a freelance writer and author whose feature articles have appeared in a variety of national and international newspapers and magazines, including The Age, Sunday Age, Sydney Morning Herald, Australian Women’s Weekly, Independent on Sunday (UK), Notebook, Marie Claire and GQ, for over a decade. In that time, she has written features on a range of topics, including Geraldine Cox and her Cambodian orphanage, life inside a children’s mental health ward at Melbourne ’s Austin Hospital , the life of an HIV-positive woman, the swingers’ party scene in Melbourne and many other observations on aspects of Australian sexuality.
Claire has previously published two books, Unsung Heroes and The World At Their Feet – both collections of interviews with important Australians. Her most recent book, Do you want sex with that? is a very personal account of her own attitudes to sex and also explores the place of sex throughout Australian life: from the pervasive sexualisation of advertising and its approach to children, to the more minority pursuits of swinging and porn-films, as well as the rise of the abstinence movement.
She lives in Melbourne with her husband and four children and is currently working on her new book.
Upcoming Dates:
Emerging Writers’ Festival
In the pub: freelance writing talk (with Chris Flynn and Ben Pobjie)
Wednesday 26 May, from 7.30pm
The Workers Club, 51 Brunswick St, Fitzroy
*Details of how to purchase tickets are on Claire’s Website http://www.clairehalliday.com/
WE HAVE ONE SIGNED COPY OF CLAIRE’S BOOK ‘DO YOU WANT SEX WITH THAT?’ TO GIVE AWAY!
To be in the running read my review below and find the question you need to answer….
MY REVIEW
Intrigued by the title I couldn’t wait to read more. So the old adage, sex sells, really is true? Of course it is… otherwise it wouldn’t be the big business that it is… from Adult shops and naughty parties, to girly mags and teen mags, television and billboard slogans and ads - girls in bikinis selling cars, steamy scenes in movies, R-rated and X-rated versions, to the vamp and hype of ‘sexy’ apparel aimed at our tweens… Go on, tell me you haven’t noticed and I’ll ask you where’s your rock?
Claire explores the flaws and foundations in the ‘sex sells’ motto as she goes ‘undercover’ as a sex addict seeking absolution. She shares her story with refreshing honesty, weaving her life’s tapestry throughout the book. Tales of her days as a young woman pre-children exploring her sexuality coming through the narrative, as she extracts the undercurrent – the underbelly (if you will) – of our sex lives in Australia, and what it means to us.
As a writer, investigator, woman and inquirer, Claire puts herself in all sorts of dramatic situations to unearth a quarry of information about why we do what we do… she pours through a bevy of detail, going into the realm of swingers and sex addicts to ‘find out more!’ Why? Because sex sells and makes people tick! Sex, and its icons, the movers and the shakes of the big screen, the clothing department, your children’s toys from Barbie to Bratz and more, are all playing a role in our lives. Is it constructive or destructive? Claire dissects the topic, with a pictorial imagery she creates just by using the written word.
Claire makes absolute sense with her assumptions and assertions of the sex-trade… a commodity that is being bought and sold, waged as a war against women, and aggressively marketed. It is a practice that waxes and wanes depending on your age group, relationship status, attitudes, living arrangements, health etc. It is both beautiful and barbaric, both humbling and emotional, an entity that suppresses and denies, shrinks and exerts authority, as well as being a gentle and passionate experience that unites lovers the world over.
I found myself reading this book and nodding – thinking “Yes I’ve noticed that or felt that!’ It is evocative and prevocative reading, it makes you think, it twists your mind into places it might never have gone before. You will question your beliefs, your practices, your attitudes, the illusions sex casts… or rather the media casts. You will in part, identify with Claire’s ride to self-discovery – but this is not a book about her…
READ THE BOOK TEASER HERE http://www.clairehalliday.com/flip/templates/liquid-green/index.html
To win a signed copy of Claire Halliday’s Book ‘Do you want sex with that?’ just tell me who interviewed Claire Halliday about her book in Novemeber 2009 on channel 10 - details are available on her website!
Curious? Want to know more about the book ?…
Sitting in a meeting of Sex Addicts Anonymous, Claire Halliday insists to herself she’s there for research. But while trying to work out what to say when her turn comes, she begins to wonder whether we aren’t all sex addicts now.
Like sugar, sex is in everything, from Bratz dolls to internet porn…
Find out here http://www.readings.com.au/product/9780670073450/do-you-want-sex-with-that
Review of ‘Do you want sex with that?’ conducted by Michelle Hayward
Author of ’FALLING’ - http://michellehayward.blogspot.com
Michelle Hayward is a mother of 9, with over 21 years experience as a parent and a Freelance Writer and Photographer who is about to release her debut novel ‘Falling.’ Michelle has certificates in Natural Therapies, Aromatherapy, Interior Decorating, and Diplomas in Make-Up Artistry; she is a Nursing & Childbirth Education student.
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