You are not too old and it is not too late

Mary Wesley and Jane Campbell prove you should just climb the damn mountain

“Why did I not do more in my life, I ask myself, as I read the obituaries of the people who have crammed their lives with "doing" while I have wasted great chunks of mine dreaming? What have I given?” - Mary Wesley

Unless you are one of those ultra high achievers or someone who has reached a spiritual state of not measuring yourself by earthly goals, you may well fret that you have not done enough. That you need to achieve more. How have you not founded that company, written that bestseller, built that dream home, climbed that metaphorical mountain? And now you fear time is running out.

*Takes a deep breath and turns to the books*

Fortunately, I recently rediscovered Mary Wesley whilst idly hanging out next to the bookshelves in my in-laws’ house. Take a house, any house, and this is where you are likely to find me. I love other people’s bookshelves. Not in a snobbish, ‘Oh I see you have the collected Jilly Cooper’ or ‘Only the obvious Hardys, I see’ kind of way. Because 1. The collected Cooper is a gem and strongly indicative of a good sense of humour and 2. You can have whatever you want on your bookshelves. Little makes me happier than an unexpected marriage of books and individual.

Anyway, the point is that Wesley wasn’t published until she was 70 - and then became a bestselling author, producing a book a year in a prodigious feat of output until she had nothing left to say (true story). She went from abject poverty to pots of money which she used to spoil her family, gift to other (because she knew what it was to be poor), and indulging her penchant for cashmere jumpers.

And then I remembered I had been sent a book written by an octogenarian first-time author and thought, ‘Well, there we are then. Truly, hope springs eternal.’ (More of this later.)

Which makes this a multipurpose newsletter: a call to action: DO THE THING - you still have time, but also: let’s have a Mary Wesley renaissance. Because she was quite the gal - and so is my newfound authorial inspiration….

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