About Katrina Lawrence
Katrina Lawrence is drawn to stories that linger - the kind shaped by history, romance, and a distinct sense of place. Chief among them is Paris, a city she has returned to endlessly, each visit deepening her connection to its beauty, nuance, and quiet intrigue.
After two decades in the world of women’s magazines, she turned to long-form writing with Paris Dreaming: What the City of Light Taught Me About Life, Love & Lipstick - a love letter to Paris, and to the moments of elegance and self-discovery it so effortlessly inspires.
Her signature lens on the city continues through Paris for Dreamers, a boutique travel offering and its companion e-guide, Paris for Dreamers: Whimsical Walks Through the City of Light’s Delights - an invitation to experience Paris not as a checklist, but as a feeling.
With a deep appreciation for historical fiction, Katrina’s debut novel, The Parisian Corset, is set against the shadowed glamour of occupied Paris - a story of resilience, artistry, and hidden histories, inspired by the wartime legacy of French Vogue and the enigma of an iconic fashion photograph.
She lives in Sydney, on the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation.
A quick Q & A
Why do you like Paris so much?
So many reasons! It’s beautifully harmonious on the eyes, for one – all those dreamy honey and beige tones, with the silvery rooftops that are low enough to let sunshine filter down to the streets. There’s something particularly bewitching and lovely about the Parisian light, whether it’s blush-pink at dawn, syrupy-warm at golden hour, or soft and misty at twilight. Whatever time of day, you can walk for hours, almost as though in a trance, and in doing so you come to understand why Paris has attracted so many artists and aesthetes over the centuries. And that brings us to another reason why I adore Paris … So much history has happened here that it spins your head to think about. As you meander around the streets, you can sense the stories – they seem steeped into the very stones of this city. It’s a place for wandering and wondering; the kind that restores you both body and spirit. I feel like everyone needs a happy place – somewhere that resets and rebalances you; a soul city. If you’re lucky, it might be where you happen to live. If you’re also lucky, it might be Paris.
What are your favourite books about – or set in – Paris?
Again: how to choose?! The one that comes first to mind is Paris to the Moon by Adam Gopnik; this series of essays, penned when The New Yorker journalist lived in Paris in the late 1990s, is endearing, hilarious and so, so witty. If you’re after history, you can’t go past Seven Ages of Paris by Alistair Horne; one of the most enjoyable biographies of the City of Light, the pace is perfect, the tone relatable, and the substance impressive. In terms of fiction, I adore The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery, an exquisitely crafted, philosophically minded novel as only the French can do, and Le Divorce by Diane Johnson, an utterly delightful read inspired by the clash of French and American cultures. (Both have been adapted into movies; the latter film, starring Kate Hudson and Naomi Watts, is particularly fun.) And as for my favourite genre, historical fiction: I love those by Natasha Lester and Paula McLain that are set in Paris, as well as The Perfume Collector by Kathleen Tessaro.
If you could go back in time, which past-Paris would you choose?
Such a tough question … I’d love to pop into the twelfth century to meet the force of nature that was Éleanor of Aquitaine when she was Queen of France, and talk beauty and poetry in her perfumed palace gardens; visit one of the seventeenth-century salons with Madame de Sévigné, listening to the latest salacious gossip while sipping the newly discovered drink, hot chocolate; walk about the rose garden of Château Malmaison with Empress Joséphine, cashmere scarves wrapped about our muslin dresses; party at the Moulin Rouge back when it was a champagne garden that featured a giant elephant sculpture inside which can-can dancers performed; watch Joséphine Baker shake her hips and take the city by storm in 1925; accompany Nancy Mitford to Christian Dior’s ‘New Look’ collection of 1947; dance at Le Tabou in the early 1950s alongside Brigitte Bardot and Françoise Sagan … I could go on and on … No wonder I love historical fiction so much!
