October 2, 2012

Snow White and the 7 Aussie Rogues 53

by Beverley Kendall • Authors, Grand Central • Tags: ,

by Anna Campbell

Hey, I guess that title makes me Snow White! How nice! Why am I suddenly craving a nice, shiny, red apple?

To celebrate the release of my seventh historical romance, SEVEN NIGHTS IN A ROGUE’S BED (you can see why 7 is suddenly the numero du jour), I’m blogging all over the place about 7 great things. Today, the great things are gorgeous Aussie men, most of whom hopefully you’ll have heard of. SNIARB features a scarred and reclusive loner as the hero (he learns the errors of his ways). I don’t think that describes any of the guys I’m about to give you in the interests of international relations!

7.            Anthony LaPaglia: I find his screen presence amazingly intense and he’s a really great actor. He does such a great American accent, a lot of people out of Australia aren’t aware he’s an import from Down Under, but he is!

6.            Patrick Rafter: Pat Rafter isn’t only a pleasure to look at, he’s a credit to his nation. He was a wonderful tennis player (he won the U.S. Open twice and is a former world number one), but even more impressively he was always so gracious and such a good sport.

5.            Chris Hemsworth: Chris is a fairly new discovery for me but I thought he made a wonderful Thor. I’m not usually a fan of the VERY beefy guy but somehow he carries it off and he’s got a wonderfully deep voice.

4.            Hugh Jackman: another all-round gentleman. And wow, what a talent (aside from what he looks like!). He can sing, he can dance, he can act. And he’s always so darn gracious. Another credit to his nation.

3.            Eric Bana: oh, no, if I say another credit to his nation, you’ll think I’m just hitting copy and paste on this post. But seriously, he’s a CREDIT TO HIS NATION! And he’s fairly easy on the eye too.

2.            Geoffrey Rush: OK, he’s not a rogue, but he’s amazingly talented and I couldn’t do a list of Aussie superstars and leave him out. He’s one of the very few actors to have won a Tony, an Emmy and an Oscar. I thought he was wonderful in THE KING’S SPEECH! I saw Geoffrey on stage once in Sydney, well before he won international fame playing David Helfott in SHINE. He was Horatio in HAMLET, which isn’t the greatest role in the world. Unless Geoffrey Rush plays it. Somehow the play became HORATIO, not HAMLET. Wonder what Shakespeare would have made of that!

1.            Errol Flynn: how could I do a list of Aussie Rogues and miss out an extremely handsome fellow who was both an Aussie and a genuine rogue? Errol was from Hobart in Tasmania where his father was a professor at the university. Errol left Tasmania forever at the age of 20 in 1929, but his exploits down there as a boy are still so notorious that they feature in the tourist literature. And he only got worse once he left Australia. Wine, women and song could have been his motto – with not so much of the song. In Australia, we call someone who bucks the system in pursuit of their own pleasure a larrikin and Errol was the classic larrikin. So Errol is my number one – partly because nobody wears tights like he does! The quintessential Robin Hood!

Do you have a favorite rogue, whether Aussie or not? Why does he tickle your fancy? Let’s share roguish pleasures today!

And don’t forget to pop over to my website for more fun. I’ll have the links to my other blog tour stops. www.annacampbell.info/index.html