Mercedes Maguire

Sydney

Features and travel writer working predominantly for The Sunday Telegraph and The Daily Telegraph. Mother of two gorgeous girls who often join me on my travels

Articles

From the NRL to Bachelor to BookTok influencer and a romantasy book deal. Meet Luke Bateman

3 weeks ago | smh.com.au | Mercedes Maguire

By Mercedes Maguire June 4, 2025 — 10.55am, register or subscribe to save articles for later. Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. It took just one TikTok post make a serious splash on BookTok. BookTok is a hashtag used by content creators when they make videos about the books they’re reading and became popular during the pandemic. By October last year, it had more than 309 billion views across 38 million posts.
‘It would be weird if she left’: The pleasure and pain of adult kids at home

3 weeks ago | smh.com.au | Mercedes Maguire

By Mercedes Maguire June 3, 2025 — 4.00pm, register or subscribe to save articles for later. Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. “It will take a stick of dynamite to get me out of my parent’s house,” Matthew McConaughey famously says in the 2006 film, Failure to Launch. And while his man-child character was played for laughs, staying in the family home long into adulthood is no longer a far-fetched Hollywood plot.
It was just a selfie with Mum, but this photo means the world to me now

1 month ago | smh.com.au | Mercedes Maguire

By Mercedes Maguire May 10, 2025 — 5.00am, register or subscribe to save articles for later. Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. I have this photo of my mum and me. We’re both beaming at the camera, heads together, in a coffee shop in Hobart. I remember the day well, we’d been Christmas shopping with my sister and were stopping for a coffee to refuel. It’s the last photo I ever took with her.
Molly Kochan wants sex. There’s just one problem.

2 months ago | smh.com.au | Mercedes Maguire

By Mercedes Maguire April 10, 2025 — 1.07pm, register or subscribe to save articles for later. Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Molly Kochan has just found out she has cancer. But what she does next turns the usual narrative about terminal illness on its head. Instead of gathering those closest to her even closer, she leaves her husband and plans a spate of sexual adventures with strangers.
What does a ‘good’ divorce look like? Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber show best practice, experts say

Mar 20, 2025 | smh.com.au | Mercedes Maguire

By Mercedes Maguire March 21, 2025 — 11.29am, register or subscribe to save articles for later. Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. When Whitney Sloan and her ex-husband decided to separate three years ago, they sat their three young children down and explained how their lives would change. In the kindest terms, they explained they were still one family, but they would be living in two homes.
‘What if that happens here?’: The Australian women dreading change in Trump’s America

Mar 11, 2025 | smh.com.au | Mercedes Maguire

By Mercedes Maguire March 11, 2025 — 4.55pm, register or subscribe to save articles for later. Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Moz Sweeney has called a news moratorium in her Melbourne home. As the mother of four adult daughters and an education support specialist, it’s her way of helping her family cope with developments coming out of the United States.
Stuff

Mar 9, 2025 | stuff.co.nz | Mercedes Maguire
International Women’s Day and the importance of work sisters

Mar 6, 2025 | smh.com.au | Mercedes Maguire

By Mercedes Maguire March 7, 2025 — 9.50am, register or subscribe to save articles for later. Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Fiona O’Riordan chokes up when she is asked what her career as a nurse would have looked like if she never met colleague Ellen Burrows. “Oh god, I don’t know,” she says fighting back tears. “Sorry, I don’t know why that question got to me. I’ve never thought about what would have happened if I didn’t meet Ellen.
‘She’s my ride or die’. Why women’s work friendships are different

Mar 6, 2025 | smh.com.au | Mercedes Maguire

By Mercedes Maguire March 7, 2025 — 9.50am, register or subscribe to save articles for later. Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Fiona O’Riordan chokes up when she is asked what her career as a nurse would have looked like had she never met colleague Ellen Burrows. “Oh god, I don’t know,” she says, fighting back tears. “Sorry, I don’t know why that question got to me. I’ve never thought about what would have happened if I didn’t meet Ellen.
I stayed at Jamala Wildlife Lodge, Canberra's most surprising hotel

Jan 21, 2025 | escape.com.au | Mercedes Maguire

The footpath to our treehouse lodgings was completely blocked. A mottled beige llama was taking up every inch, her head tilted towards us at an arrogant angle as if to say “I dare you!” We had arrived at Canberra’s Jamala Wildlife Lodge for a weekend of animal encounters, but I hadn’t banked on this one. The Mexican standoff was broken only when the llama slowly stood up and sauntered away, almost like she was bored with the interaction. Relieved, we entered Giraffe Treehouse 1.