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I'll be seventy in September and am very happy to have left my career behind. No more 4 AM emails, no more weekends lost to the office. Retirement means I can spend my time and energies on what's important to me, not to an employer. I'd wanted all my life to write books, and published my first novel at 68 ("Brilliant Charming Bastard"). My second novel will be out this Fall ("Vampires of a Certain Age"). There is much more to life than career, and to say that retirement means watching television implies a lack of imagination. Time to reclaim the "R" word!

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May 28, 2023Liked by Eleanor Mills

OK, firstly off, love this writing.

Thanks for the idea about a new book to read. It's not out yet, but I am ready to pounce on it soon!

I love Tina Turner's vitality, spirit, energy, strength, openness, bouncebackability - aka resilience? - including her admission of vulnerability, and spent some of yesterday evening watching and listening to her in concert on TV.

Regarding the script, we can all change it together and individually, can't we?

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I have quite a long list of "super" women, so here goes:

Dame Vera Baird who did so much as Victims Commissioner, Dame Joan Bakewell, Davina McCall - for health and fitness as well as the menopause, Julie Graham for the brilliant and spot on "Dun Breedin" written and filmed during lockdown with a fabulous cast, Mary Hutton, the founder of Free the Bears to end cruelty to bears worldwide and through her organisation which was created in 1995 has ended Indian bear dancing and there are now bear sanctuaries in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam which take care of bears rescued from bile farms, Kathy Burke, Harriet Harman, Professor Kathleen Stock and Professor Jo Phoenix, Carol Vorderman and finally, for her voice, Barbra Streisand but also because she refused to kow-tow in wanting to film and star in Yentl. I love any woman that has a "stuff you" attitude and refusing to conform. I could add many more but will stop (for now).

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Love this piece! Thank you. I especially enjoyed learning about your grandmother and aunt.

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