Jane Miller, now in her late seventies, reads from her critically acclaimed memoir Crazy Age: Thoughts On Being Old and answers questions about what it means to be old in a culture which prides youth and views old age as a slow decline towards the end of life. Read an interview and extract from her upcoming book - Jane Miller: 'I'm not sure I really will die', Guardian, 26 Aug.

From Crazy Age:
‘Ever since I have inhabited old age, I have looked and listened, mostly in vain, for news of what it is like for others who inhabit it too. Naturally, I’m interested in its well-known depredations, the physical and mental ones that people in their forties and fifties so publicly dread. And who would not delight in the theatrical props of old age - the pills and sticks, the shrieking hearing aids and the tricks for countering the loss of names and threads and glasses. But that’s not all. I have a fond hope that in old age there may be new kinds of time and of pleasure, perhaps even new kinds of vitality, and that, though we forget and muddle and fail to hear things, there may be moments when we truly understand what’s going on for the first time. But then I’ve always been a late developer.'

Maggie Smith, National Coordinator for Creative Writing for the University of the Third Age, will introduce the participants from her workshop Writing From Your Life. Mature participants, aged 50 and above, of this 10-week course will share the outcome of their work, based on their real life experiences.

Jane first worked in publishing, then as an English teacher in a large London comprehensive school and finally, at the London University Institute of Education, where she trained English teachers, taught MA courses and supervised research students.  She retired as Professor Emeritus in 1998.  Since then, she has continued to edit the academic journal she founded, Changing English.  Her publications include Many Voices, Bilingualism, Culture and Education (1983), Women Writing About Men (1986), Seductions: Studies in Reading and Culture (1990).  More Has Meant Women, The Feminisation of Schooling (1992), School for Women (1996), and Relations (2003) which was largely autobiographical and is mainly about her two families, one Jewish and the other Unitarian.  She is married to Karl Miller, and they have three children and six grandchildren.

Formerly a life-planning consultant and counsellor, Maggie is fascinated by the often unexplored possibilities of people's lives. The author of three books on mid-life career change and multiple prize winner at writing competitions, she now concentrates on writing stories rooted in real lives, whether fictional or real, and tutors writers groups, study days and summer schools. Maggie finds working with more mature age groups, both beginners and the more experienced, very rewarding. She is the National Coordinator for Creative Writing for the University of the Third Age. Maggie brought up her family in Greenwich, lived for 20 years in Yorkshire but returned with delight to Southeast London four years ago. She misses living near the magnificient countryside, but the Thames and being involved in the life of a grand-daughter more than make up for it.

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Age Matters
Jane Miller
Maggie Smith
Tuesday, 30 Nov 2010
6.30pm

Entrance Fee: £2
Note: Entrance fee includes a glass of wine and tickets are redeemable for £2 off purchase of the author's book