Is there anyone who isn’t just a little bit in love with Myf Warhust?
That unremittingly smiley face and bouncy personality has enriched the spirits of Australians for almost 20 years now, and thank God she’s back on prime-time Sunday nights with the equally engaging Adam Hills on the very welcome return of Spicks and Specks. But better yet, she’ll be here in Noosa next week!
Myf is touring in support of her new book, Time of My Life, which her publish describes as “a captivating and joyous memoir of wisdom, humour and heart that unleashes the music within us all”.
As the youngest child, and only girl, in a family of creative types, Myf grew up with the music in her. Whether she was watching Daryl Braithwaite on TV on a Sunday night or listening to the crackle of the needle across vinyl as Abba’s Agnetha and Anni-Frid took her from rural Victoria to Eurovision, music has always shaped her life. Later her love of music (and the realisation that becoming a professional pianist wasn’t going to pan out) would shape her career.
But music isn’t just about memories. It’s a safe place for people who feel different. Songs and lyrics helped Myf make sense of the world and deal with heartbreak and uncertainty. Music steered her hopes and fashion choices, cemented friendships and bonded family.
In Time of My Life she shares funny, fabulous and occasionally fraught tales about growing up in a small country town with an unhealthy obsession with Countdown, then working in Australian radio and her experiences on the much-loved music quiz show Spicks and Specks, where she was a team captain from its inception in 2005 until it finished in 2011. Back then Myf said: “I’ve been lucky enough to experience many great things. I’ve seen Frank Woodley’s privates, been naked under a desk with Pete Murray, and met many of my childhood musical crushes. Life can’t get much better than that, so this seems like the perfect time to wind things up.”
But no it wasn’t, and a decade and a bit later Myf and the team are back, and at 49 she’s as smiley and liveable as she always was. And in the memoir she doesn’t hold back as she spills the backstage beans on work, fame, feminism, failure, love and success. Like a sommelier matches food with wine, Myf matches hits with memory, and in the process reminds us all that, as Louis Armstrong said, “Music is life itself.”
It’s a captivating and joyous memoir of wisdom, humour and heart that unleashes the music within us all, and Myf will be sharing it with Noosa over a literary dinner at Sunshine Beach Surf Club next week. Don’t miss it.
Myf Warhurst book launch and dinner, presented by Annie’s Books on Peregian, Tuesday 11 October from 6pm. Dinner and a welcome drink, $75 per person. Bookings essential: 54482053 or info@anniesbooks.com.au
