“She might have the premier cockatoo act in the country but that’s no degree of integrity,” - Ada Delroy, on Madam Marzella. Marzella - or ‘that vinegar-beaked old fussock’, as Ada calls her is rather a villain in my new novel DELIVERED TO BOOKSHOPS TODAY (faints from excitement). If you fancy helping our Ada into the bestseller lists, please grab a copy in the next week or so. Apparently that’s how it works: I salute thee, bookshop order-ers, online pre-order-ers, early Christmas shoppers and in-like-Flynn types! Like every other character in the book, Madam Marzella really existed. I wonder how her “feathered mummers” - cookies, macaws, ravens, and galahs - regarded that tactless feather boa of hers? This newspaper clipping c1905 is in a theatre fan’s old scrapbook held at @library_vic More info on the book at kazcooke.com.au. #madammarzella #vaudeville #australianhistory #adabook #cockatoos #birdwatchers #birding #birdact #bookshops #books #christmasisCOMING
