SOMETIMES LATENESS SHOULD BE APPLAUDED

Some people are better ay choosing Christmas presents than others. One year, someone who knew that my interests included both flowers and artwork, gave me a copy of Mrs Delany: Her Life And Her Flowers. I had enjoyed the book for some time before I noticed she only started making her flowers when she was 72.

Once I had noticed this, other people who began their work late in life, or whose work had blossomed late in life began to attract my attention. I noticed Claire Tomalin (on the South Bank Show) discussing her view that Thomas Hardy wrote his best poetry after he was 70. Flora Thompson wrote ‘Lark Rise to Candleford” in her sixties and Jean Rhys published ‘Wide Sargasso Sea in her seventies. The theme of lateness in literature is discussed by Edward Said in On Late Style.

Change and development do not end in childhood and adolescence. The prison education service deals with many people who pick up the threads of their frayed education late in life, often with remarkable results.

I the general community, people whose work has all their time may suddenly find their retirement gives them the opportunity to develop new skills or neglected interests.

Currently, family history seems to be a popular choice. The letters and photographs that have accumulated over the years may have clues to the more distant past. And people are becoming more and more ambitious, particularly if they have access to the Internet. At one time most people’s research only went back to about 1837 when the civil registration of births, marriages and deaths began. Now, many dig deeper. And they are finding different ways to record the results. Andrew Jewson’s ‘Chrono’ aims to do just this.

Those people whose work involved travel may enjoy the chance to spend more time at home exploring what is available locally. For others the reverse may be true, and companies such as Saga offer specialist travel advice.

It is often said that everyone has one novel in them. This may be the moment to set it free. Advice and encouragement come from many sources: evening classes, magazines like ‘Mslexia’ (for women), publishers, companies offering self- publishing like Pen Press, and other writers with similar aims.

There seems to be a whole kaleidoscope of activities out there it’s never too late to shake the pieces and find a pattern you like.

By Frances Ball