KATHY LETTE wrote her debut novel aged just 19 – and it still pays the bills

Bestselling novelist Kathy Lette was just 19 and living in a squat in Australia when she shot to fame in 1979 as the author of Puberty Blues, writes Donna Ferguson.

Since then she has gone on to publish 18 ‘feminist but funny’ novels, including her latest, The Revenge Club. Now 66, she lives in West Hampstead, north London, with her partner Brian, 59.

What did your parents teach you about money?

My parents were very careful with money. They both came from very poor backgrounds. My dad, Mervyn Lette, became a famous footballer in Australia, but footballers didn’t get paid a lot in those days so he eventually became an engineer.

My mother was a primary school teacher who became a headmistress. It was very unusual when I was growing up for women to have a vocation like she did. 

She was the only mum I knew who worked, and she instilled in her four daughters that we should stand on our own stilettos and not wait to be rescued by some knight in shining Armani.

My parents worked hard, and I’d say we were perfectly comfortable.

Wise words: Kathy Lette’s mum taught her she had to stand on her own stilettos!

Have you ever struggled to make ends meet?

Yes. I ran away from school at 16 – I always joke that the only examination I’ve ever passed is my cervical smear test – which broke my mother’s heart.

But I dreamed of becoming a writer so I just wanted to get out there and have experiences. I started fending for myself, living in a squat in Woolloomooloo, supporting myself as a busker on street corners. It was a tough, hand-to-mouth existence.

Eventually I got a job emptying bedpans in a hospital and started writing my first novel, Puberty Blues. I explained to my mother it was about growing up as a surfie girl on the Australian beaches, and there was quite a lot of sex in panel vans in it.

I asked her if she wanted me to use a pseudonym, such as Sue De Nym, and she said: ‘Don’t worry darling, I don’t think that book’s ever going to be published.’

Of course, she came to regret that. It was published when I was 19 and it was a huge hit, which has never been out of print since 1979. It’s seen as an Australian cult classic – it’s even on the Australian school curriculum. I still make money from it today.

How much did you make from the 1981 movie adaptation of Puberty Blues?

I was pretty naive. Everyone wanted the movie rights, but my agent sold them for $500, with no escalation clause. He thought the book was pornographic rubbish. It went on to become the biggest box office grossing movie in Australian history at that time.

Have you ever been paid silly money?

Yes. I was once paid $100,000 a year over three years for the movie rights for one of my feminist but funny books, a satire on marriage called Altar Ego, which was never made into a movie.

What’s the most expensive thing you bought for fun?

A Moschino coat that cost over £1,000, in around 2006. Around the waist, it says: ‘waist of money’. All the buttons are dollar bill signs and the front pockets are purses.

The best money decision you have made?

Buying a four-bed house in West Hampstead in north London in 1997, for about £800,000. Those were the days of big advances and I’d just published Mad Cows, my biggest-selling book.

I don’t know how much it’s worth, but houses in this area typically sell for a few million.

Do you own any other property?

Yes. I have a beautiful apartment in Sydney, which has views out to the harbour. I bought it for $1.3million ten years ago with my book royalties.

All writers need a view from their window. I’ve also got a cottage on the Isle of Wight. I bought it a year ago for my autistic son, Julius, so he’s got a place he can go when he needs a break.

Fun times: Kathy during a family trip to the beach with her three sisters

Do you save into a pension?

I have a teeny pension pot because I put in a lump sum in my early 30s after a particularly big book advance, but haven’t put in any more since then.

I think saving into a pension is important, and I regret not understanding financial matters better. To me, fiscal rectitude sounds like something that could lead to haemorrhoids, and Isas sound like infectious diseases you should take a course of antibiotics for.

I feel like the world of banking and investment is very male, and it excludes women.

I wish I had sought financial advice when I was younger, because how much longer can I keep coming up with witty book premises? Although I only write because it’s cheaper than therapy. I wish I was one of those people who could tell my money where to go, instead of wondering where it went.

Have your advances got lower as you’ve got older?

I think all writers are suffering from that at the moment.

I’m lucky I’m still published and my books are selling. But the book industry is sexist. I get dismissed as an old hag and a crone, generally, while men are seen as silver foxes – and in the literary world, men my age are literary lions, while women my age are told we’ve passed our ‘amused by’ date.

My latest book, The Revenge Club, is about four middle-aged women who take revenge on the men who ruined their careers for the crime of being menopausal.

When I started writing it, I was told publishers aren’t into middle-aged women. One publisher said: ‘We see them as Sudan and Mogadishu – we know they exist but nobody wants to go there.’ Well, that book – which is just about to come out in paperback in the UK – became a number one bestseller in Australia and sold really well here, too. For me, the best thing about the taste of revenge is that it’s sweet but totally non-fattening.

What is the one little luxury you treat yourself to?

Handmade salted caramel chocolates. When I’m on a deadline, I buy them and have one every day at 3pm. Each one costs about £1, I think.

If you were Chancellor what you would do first?

I would stop investigating little people and instead I’d go after the giant corporations that often pay little tax.

And I’d do whatever I could to rid the world of tax havens – shady spots for shady people.

What is your number one financial priority?

To always make sure that I’ve got enough money for emergency champagne.

• The Revenge Club, by Kathy Lette, is out in paperback on Thursday.