We Chat With The Wonderfully Authentic Miriam Margolyes About Her Life In The Southern Highlands
by Josephine Grieve
It was love at first sight when Miriam Margolyes, one of the world’s best-loved actors, clapped eyes on Robertson when she visited while she was filming Babe.
She loved it so much, she bought a place and is now happy to be back in the Highlands after three years away!
This week, Book Nook 2577, Three Spuds Bistro and the Robertson Bowling Club welcome Miriam home with a celebratory lunch, giving locals the opportunity to hear about her new best-selling autobiography This Much is True.
And of course the event sold out super quickly because…… Miriam!
So we thought we’d catch up with this wonderful Highlander [yep, we’ve adopted her and claimed her as one of our own!], sitting on her deck in the sunshine, surrounded by the nature and wildlife she adores, and find out more about what she loves about living in the Highlands, while she prepares for the fun Q+A event at Robertson this week.
Along with her brilliant film and television career over six decades, Miriam Margolyes is also known for being naughty, polemical, an enthusiastic lesbian and swears like a trooper.
She’s authentically Miriam, which is why we love her.
Image thanks to ABC
1 :: What drew you to the Southern Highlands in the first place?
That’s very easy and can be said in one word – Babe.
I played the part of the mother dog Fly – the border collie – in Babe. The voice was recorded in a studio in North Sydney, but George Miller kindly asked me if would like to meet Fly, so he brought me to the set in Robertson and I was stunned by the beauty.
I just loved Robertson, so I bought a place with Heather, my Australian partner of 53 years and her sister. I wanted to find something that was away from everybody, so we bought land and then we built the road and then we built the house.
2 :: Do you spend a lot of time in the Highlands?
No, and I wish I did. I haven’t been here for nearly three years because of Covid. I’ve been an Australian citizen since 2013 so I can come and go. But nobody could come and go during Covid. Instead, I went to my other paradise which is Italy and that’s where I wrote the book.
3 :: What is it about Robertson you love so much?
Our place is in the middle of the rainforest and that’s precious. And Robertson has that special quality of rural Australia with people who love and respect the land.
I’m sitting on my deck in the sun, and I can see the ocean through the trees. It’s such a privilege to be here, to see the wallabies in the morning and lyrebirds flittering across the grass. I feel very lucky. Can you hear those birds calling?
There’s just one thing with the wildlife, though. I don’t mind the snakes – they’re beautiful and so far they haven’t troubled me but the leeches that crawl up your bottom – they’re just disgusting. If I could get rid of the leeches, boy would I!
4 :: Tell us about your connections to the community and the people you’ve met here.
I’m very fond of Andrew Ford, the composer, author and radio presenter who lives in Robertson. He’s my kind of guy! Recently, I had to do a voice recording for people in England and my internet isn’t very good, so he let me use his home studio in town.
When I heard that he would host the celebratory lunch for me next week, I was delighted!
I love places like Moonacres Kitchen, Lucinda’s Pantry, Pecora Dairy and Jamberoo Mountain Eggs with their nice food. These are people who care about keeping the place real. I don’t want it to be like Sydney’s north shore or the eastern suburbs.
The CTC (Community Technology Centre) is one of the lovely things about Robertson. It is a community. These are people who help each other and get involved in things. People like Judy Fisk who runs the Crop Swap at the CTC – she has a heart of gold.
Image thanks to ABC
5 :: Are you excited about the lunch celebrating your return to the Highlands and your new book ‘This Much Is True’ at the Robertson Bowling Club?
I’m very touched by it actually. I haven’t put myself about much because I like to be here as a reasonably private individual, but everyone is so friendly when I go into the village.
It’s lovely to have a little do about the book although I’m nervous about being in crowded places because of Covid.
I haven’t been to the theatre for nearly three years, and I would have loved to have seen Melanie Tait’s play, The Appleton Ladies’ Potato Race, in Robertson last week or Moss Vale this week. Melanie is such a clever girl. It’s an important play and is going to be made into a film.
6 :: We love that you’ve become an advocate for a number of local causes. What would you love to see change in the Southern Highlands?
We have given our land – this property that I own with Heather and her sister – to the Biodiversity Conservation Trust so that it can never be changed or subdivided. These days pristine nature adds to the value, and I would love to see more people protect the biodiversity on their properties in this way.
My whole political stance is about fairness. I’m not in favour of projects where developers set out to make money from a place at the expense of the people living there.
And of course there was the great swimming pool debacle in Robertson. I’d always hoped to have a swimming pool here, and it would be wonderful if the new committee makes that happen.
7 :: What would you like to see in the future in the Highlands?
I would like things to stay as they are, as a small-scale agricultural place. Let people live in a rural way and stop those wealthy bastards from trying to change the place and make money out of it!
My policies would be retrogressive and nostalgic! They’re not policies that anybody is going to adopt unfortunately because it’s against the whole ethos of what Australia has become but subdivisions and development are killing the sweetness of this place.
The Southern Highlands is beautiful and needs to be protected.
8 :: You’ve had such a varied career and life – what’s next for Miriam Margolyes?
Amazingly, I can’t believe that I’m so old and I’ve become so famous. I went shopping in Mittagong the other day, and I sat on the seat outside Woolworths and masses of people came up and talked to me. I can’t quite get over it.
The book is a best seller in England, and I’ve been commissioned to do another one. I’ll talk about that at the lunch.
I’ve also got this strange new career doing documentaries – trundling around sometimes in a campervan, sometimes in a wheelchair or a mobility scooter because I’ve developed spinal stenosis, so my walking is compromised.
I’ve just finished doing another series in Australia co-produced by the BBC and ABC with the working title, Australia Unmasked.
It’s a wonderful experience travelling around Australia and this time I wanted to meet a lot of First Nations people.
Image thanks to ABC
One of the nice things was meeting people in little towns in faraway communities and I’d say to them, ‘I’m a lesbian. Have you ever met one of those?’
And they were all perfectly fine. People could cope. Sometimes we don’t give people a chance to show their humanity.
Now, I’m going to embark on a documentary series in Ireland and another one with Alan Cummings in Scotland and then California. I’ve suddenly becoming this world traveller in a wheelchair!!
Two Mondays ago, a new program about me in a series called Imagine by Alan Yentob went out on English television and it’s been 5-star everywhere. Very, very popular.
It’s just so weird!
Image thanks to ABC
The Celebratory Lunch for Miriam Margolyes at the Robertson Bowling Club on 11 May is sold out [but there is a waiting list].
This Much is True is published by Hachette and is available to buy at Book Nook 2577.
The Appleton Ladies’ Potato Race by Melanie Tait is showing at the Moss Vale Services Club 6-14 May. Buy your tickets online.
And you can watch Miriam in Almost Australian on ABC iView.
