 The original 1994 Australian Lunch of Blood paperback cover | |
| Author | Antonella Gambotto |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Interviews |
| Publisher | Random House |
Publication date | 1994 |
| Publication place | Australia |
| Media type | Paperback |
| Pages | 363 |
| ISBN | 0-09-182871-6 |
| Followed by | An Instinct for the Kill |
Lunch of Blood is Antonella Gambotto-Burke's first book and first anthology. The title was inspired by a Saul Bellow poem:
"Mice hide when hawks are high;
Hawks shy from airplanes;
Planes dread the ack-ack-ack;
Each one fears somebody.
Only the heedless lions
Under the Booloo tree
Snooze in each other's arms
After their lunch of blood -
I call that living good!"[1]
Published by Random House in 1994, Lunch of Blood was dedicated to the artist and critic John Henshaw,[2] and includes Gambotto-Burke's 1991 Independent on Sunday cover story on British cardiothoracic surgeons ("Affairs of the Heart"), and interviews with Martin Amis, Edward de Bono, Gérard Depardieu, Alex Dimitriades, Ben Elton, Rachel Hunter, Elle Macpherson, Morrissey, Marc Newson, Noah Taylor, Naomi Wolf, and others. It peaked at number four on The Sydney Morning Herald's bestseller lists and, according to a review section cover story in The Weekend Australian, established Gambotto-Burke's reputation as the "Stilettoed Assassin".[3]
- ^ Humboldt's Gift, by Saul Bellow, Penguin Classics, 1996 (first published in 1975), pp.111
- ^ John Henshaw, Art Gallery of New South Wales Collection
- ^ "Antonella's Ashes," by Murray Waldren, The Weekend Australian, 20 March 2004.