Author Description

Life begins at forty-three when Jean Comes to London after a divorce. There she meets women and men who help here to find an identity which does not depend on her status as a married woman. 'When she entered the room eight women were already there. They were drinking from cans of beer and seemed to know each other well. One woman had brought a bouquet of flowers from her parents home. They were fresh garden blooms, roses, calendulas and columbine. They reminded Jean of her mother's garden. She wondered how here mother would like all these new women she was meeting. They were so different from any of the women she had known before. They wore no make-up, their hair was cut short and their breasts showed full and round in the t-shirts they wore with their jeans. She felt silly with the amount of make-up she had on. Her face felt still under it, she wanted to see if she looked like a clown to them, but when she went to the toilet to see, there was no mirror to check up on.'