When she was writing her Sex and the City newspaper column, Candace Bushnell said she was like her protagonist Carrie Bradshaw, tapping out her words at a desk at a window in her New York apartment but probably "looking at an air-conditioning shaft" rather than the treetops of some fantasy street as Carrie did.
Fast-forward almost 25 years to the early 2020s and Candace is writing her Sex and the City live one-woman stage show - this time at a standing desk, looking out a window to a park in the Hamptons as she escapes lockdown in New York.
Now is another time, but Bushnell is bringing back all that seemingly carefree late '90s and early 2000s nostalgia with her stage show, True Tales of Sex, Success and SEX AND THE CITY, which she'll perform in Canberra in December.
In the show, she reveals the stories behind her Sex and the City newspaper column that became the book, that became the TV series that became a cultural phenomenon, everyone back in the day ordering Cosmos as they figured out if they were a Carrie, a Charlotte, a Miranda or (all power to them) a Samantha.
Darren Star took Bushnell's Sex and the City book and created the juggernaut TV series for HBO (then regarded as the network willing to take ground-shaking risks) and, in the days before streaming, it became appointment television for a generation of women.
The series about four New York women navigating relationships, sex of all kinds and female friendship, ran from 1998 to 2004 and starred Sarah Jessica-Parker as Carrie, Kristin Davis as Charlotte, Cynthia Nixon as Miranda and Kim Cattrall as Samantha.
There were also two Sex and the City films and a prequel series (Carrie's Diaries) and a sequel series (And Just Like That....., which is still filming, a third season due to air next year).
With her stage show, Bushnell is almost reclaiming her story, going back to the days of her Sex and the City column which she wrote for The New York Observer from 1994 to 1996. (The book released in 1996 was an anthology of those columns.)
And at 65, she's as fabulous as ever, walking, biking and "jumping on a mini-trampoline" to keep fit, as she brings the Sex and the City sparkle to the stage, but also some of the reality behind the fantasy.
"The show is a great girls' night out. A lot of women come with their girlfriends," she says.
"And it's basically the origin story of Sex and the City. How I wrote Sex and the City. How hard I worked to get there, why I invented Carrie Bradshaw and what happened to me after.
"And I talk about my real-life girlfriends who inspired the characters in Sex and the City, I talk about the real Mr Big and just relationship lessons I've learned along the way and, you know, some of the ups and downs of my life. People seem to find it very inspirational."
The onstage memoir is told at a quick pace - from Bushnell's arrival in New York with just $20 in her pocket, to features in Time magazine, The New York Times and Variety magazine, and interviews with Oprah Winfrey.
Bushnell tells her story on a set that is a girly New York apartment, a pink velvet lounge front and centre and bookcases filled with Cosmo glasses, framed photographs - and her own shoes.
"Yes, I travel with a couple of suitcases of shoes. They take up a lot of room," she says, matter-of-fact.
(Shoes were a big thing in Sex and the City. Carrie's iconic blue Manolo Blahnik heels were almost a character in themselves.)
"I'm doing this one-woman show because, I guess, it's a new phase in my life and something different to do creatively, " she says.
"I really enjoy being on stage, being in a theatre. I guess part of it was after the pandemic, I didn't want to spend a whole bunch of time alone again.
"This is a great creative thing to do and I see people and I meet people and it's really great and I've had a wonderful response from the audience, which is really fulfilling. And it's immediate.
"I basically go through the different phases of my life, from my late teens when I first arrived in New York, to a post-menopausal woman."
As far as creating a social and cultural phenomenon and being proud of that, she doesn't dwell on it. "I honestly don't think about it very much because I'm always working on something new," she said.
Bushnell was married for 10 years to ballet dancer Charles Askegard and has been divorced for 11 years. Sex and the City was a lot about finding the one, namely the Mr Big, the one who ultimately got away. Or did he?
"Now I'm working on this show and writing this show, I went back and looked at the book Sex and the City and I went over some of the real dialogue I had with the real Mr Big and I realised this was a man who really wanted to get married and I didn't see that at all," Bushnell said.
The real Mr Big is still around and she still talks to him. "I do and he's now been married for probably 25 years," she said.
Bushnell, who doesn't have children, is happy with the path she chose. "I am," she said. "I find it interesting and exciting and very creative."
At 65, she is on the dating apps. And her frustration with them is clear. I mean, would Carrie have even got a date in 2024?
"I'm now in the phase of doing what everyone else does where you just get sick of these dating apps and then you just forget it. If somebody comes along, great," she said.
"I'm on a couple of dating apps and you connect with people and you talk to them, which really just means you're sending them text messages every now and then, but it's like nothing ever happens. You never, ever meet up with people. It's not easy."
And it says something that this stage show, and particularly the response she got from the audience at the London Palladium earlier this year, are probably her career highlights. She's looking back, but always enjoying the here and now. "Grab a Cosmo and get ready for a lot of laughs," she says.
- True Tales of Sex, Success and SEX AND THE CITY is at the Llewellyn Hall in Canberra on Thursday, December 5. Tickets from www.tegdainty.com
