Yes, let's hear it for Mary Austin, the safe harbour in a stormy Freddie sea! She could have told and sold her story for mega-pounds but her dignity and grace speak volumes for her feelings for Freddie. She has spoken with several magazines but she never told intimate things that no doubt many wanted to know. Do you think she should have "come forward" like other peers and told "her side of the story"? Or is it best for her to be left with her memories and let everybody guess?
I believe she has done the proper thing by not going the "tell-all" route like others did. She stuck by Freddie through good and bad times and yes sickness and health. We all should be blessed with friends like that!
VGB · Member since
i agree with you, although I'm still not sure what all details anyone else would want to know?
Sonja · Member since
I agree. And Freddie knew what a great and loyal friend he'd found in Mary. Despite all the lovers Freddie had throughout his career I think that Mary always remained the love of his life.
Sonja · Member since
Sorry double post.
frejorobri · Member since
I agree. I respect Mary for always honouring Freddie's privacy and memory. That's what Freddie wanted. I was also pleased when I read about the result of the tragic incident where a maintenance crew were careless and killed some of Freddie's Koi fish-and Mary sued them.Good for her!She sticks up for Freddie,because that's exactly what he would have done. Mary loves Freddie deeply and has always been devoted to him-in good times and bad.
[StArMaN] · Member since
"Mary sued them.Good for her!She sticks up for Freddie,because that's exactly what he would have done."
mmh, maybe freddie would have said "forget'em" lol
and Brian add "all dead all dead" ;)
pma · Member since
The only one? Hey, Peter Straker (for example) hasn't written about Freddie either... or did I miss his book?
"5 Queens, a Faghag and a pizza place?" Oh yeah
I think I did.
Whatinthewhatthe? · Member since
It goes to show how many real "friends" Freddie truly had.
Right till the end!
agneepath! 11994 · Member since
Wasn't Mary the one, who also benefited most from Freddie's will?
Brian_Mays_Wig · Member since
Why would she want to sell her story for 'mega-pounds'??? She inherited mega, mega pounds. Im sure if she was broke then it would have been sold over and over again!
Brian_Mays_Wig · Member since
[QUOTE][QUOTENAME]VGB wrote: [/QUOTENAME]i agree with you, although I'm still not sure what all details anyone else would want to know?[/QUOTE]
Yes, I thought Jim Huttons revelation that Freddie pissed himself just before he died was a bit too much!
Brian_Mays_Wig · Member since
Sorry, me again!
Im not knocking Mary by the way, i might have sounded a bit harsh on her, Im sure we'd all love friends like her. And shes still a fine looking woman too ;)
geeksandgeeks · Member since
I respect her no more or less than I respect the ones who DID write about Freddie. They're all human, and they did what they could for him.
Whatinthewhatthe? · Member since
It may have been much too traumatic for her to write anything. After all, she, like others in Freddie's circle, literally watched Freddie dying every day. Seeing someone who was once bright and vital and full of life wasting away due to an illness is indeed traumatic. I watched my own mother succumb to cancer in only three and a half months earlier this year and it was something I do not want to witness ever again in this lifetime.
You want to remember that person as they once were, not how they were toward and at the end of their life. I really recoiled when I first read Peter's and Jim's account...they made me weep for Freddie's suffering. (And this was years before my mother's death.)
egret · Member since
I think the memoirs include some horribly sad details about Freddie's physical deterioration because of Freddie's position as a very famous AIDS victim. While the main point of the memoirs is of course to remember their friend, another point on their agenda is an argument for compassion and concern for AIDS victims. Also, of course, if you spend time nursing someone, their physical deterioration becomes part of your memory of them, which is partly why nursing a loved one is so emotionally difficult. Also, in much writing of this genre, the body and its physicality come to stand for truth -- it's that which is missing, of which one is bereft, so the writing tries to recapture its presence.
Alright, I'll stop with the literary criticism, but I don't think either Freestone's or Hutton's memoirs are exploitative.
