no limits
Tea and life advice from four women who refused to put a time limit on happiness
PHOTOGRAPHY: MARTIN PARR
“I’ve grown to believe none of us have ever really missed the boat – there is always time”
Anne Youngson, 75, had a lifelong dream of being an author that was stalled by circumstance and self-doubt, until she finally put her work out there
“Writing has always been a passion of mine – I studied English at university in the hope that I’d become a novelist one day. But I also needed to earn money, so I ended up working in product development until my mid-50s. I never stopped writing in my free time, although I didn’t show it to anyone. It was when I retired that I thought to myself, ‘Now’s your chance to (£8.99, Transworld), was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award. It’s not a book I could’ve written in my younger years. It needed that sense of maturity and confidence to make the story what it is. It draws on the things I’ve learned, over my lifetime, that are important to me. I also feel I can cope with the pressures of publishing better now than I would have all those years ago, as I have a much better understanding of myself. I suppose people see youth as the time to start writing novels because there’s still room to try new things, but it’s an energy I’m taking with me even at my age. You can still experiment and change your mind even in your 70s. Something I’ve grown to believe is that none of us have ever really missed the boat – there is always time.”
