Louise Doughty on the unrealised potential of older women

The Shift with Sam Baker

Sam Baker Ltd

Society & Culture, Health & Fitness, Personal Journals

4.8 • 525 Ratings

🗓️ 5 November 2024

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

My guest today is Louise Doughty, the woman behind some of the knottiest thrillers to grace our bookshelves and TV screens in recent years. Her bestseller, Apple Tree Yard about a sensible middle aged woman who makes a very unsensible decision (involving sex in the house of commons!) sold over half a million copies and was turned into a smash hit BBC series starring Emily Watson. She was also the brains behind the breathtaking BBC drama Crossfire that starred Keeley Hawes. Of course What you don’t hear, is that Apple Tree Yard was Louise’s 7th novel, catapulting her to “the big time” at the age of 50. Her latest book, A Bird In Winter, looks set to continue that trajectory. Think The 39 steps if the lead was an extremely resourceful 50something woman on the run. Louise joined me to talk about how her “overnight” success at 50” transformed her life (mainly she finally started a pension!) And why it’s still considered controversial when middle aged women have sex! We also discussed surviving the menopause-puberty collision, the unrealised fury - and potential - of the middle aged woman and the power and importance of realising you’re not for everyone. And that’s fine. Note: apologies for the occasionally disrupted sound quality at the start of this episode. * You can buy all the books mentioned in this podcast at The Shift bookshop on Bookshop.org, including A Bird in Winter by Louise Doughty and the book that inspired this podcast, The Shift: how I lost and found myself after 40 - and you can too, by me. * If you enjoyed this episode and you fancy buying me a coffee, pop over to my page on buymeacoffee.com. • And if you'd like to support the work that goes into making this podcast and get a weekly newsletter plus loads more content including exclusive transcripts of the podcast, why not join The Shift community, come and have a look around at www.theshiftwithsambaker.substack.com • The Shift (on life after 40) with Sam Baker is created and hosted by Sam Baker and edited by Juliette Nicholls @ Pineapple Audio Production. If you enjoyed this podcast, please rate/review/follow as it really does help other people find us. And let me know what you think on twitter @sambaker or instagram @theothersambaker. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:22.8	entrepreneurs like you. Sign up for your $1 a month trial at Shopify.com slash setup.
0:33.1	Hello and welcome to The Shift, the podcast that aims to tell the no holds bad truth about
0:39.4	being a woman post-40, created and hosted by me, writer and broadcaster Sam Baker.
0:45.5	My guest today is Louise Doughty, the woman behind some of the naughtiest thrillers to grace
0:50.7	our bookshelves and TV screens in recent years. Her bestseller, Apple Tree Yard,
0:56.2	about a sensible middle-aged woman who makes a very unsensible decision involving sex in the
1:01.6	House of Commons, sold over half a million copies and was turned into a smash-hit BBC series
1:07.0	starring Emily Watson. She was also the brains behind the breathtaking BBC drama
1:11.7	Crossfire that starred Keely Hawes. Of course, what you don't hear is that Apple Tree Yard was
1:17.8	Louise's seventh novel, which catapulted her to the big time, as they say, at the age of 50.
1:23.9	To me, the rewards of getting older hugely outweigh the debits of it. I just love it. I've
1:30.6	never been happier than I am now. Her latest book, A Bird in Winter, looks set to continue that trajectory.
1:37.3	Think the 39 steps if the lead was an extremely resourceful 50-something woman on the run.
1:43.4	Louise joined me to talk about how her overnight success at 50 transformed her life,
1:49.5	mainly she finally started a pension, and why it's still considered controversial when
1:54.0	middle-aged women have sex.
1:56.3	We also discussed surviving the menopause puberty collision, the unrealised fury and potential of the middle
2:02.4	age woman, and the power and importance of realizing you're not for everyone, and that's
2:09.0	absolutely fine. I mean, you had written, oh, God, I'm not going to get this right now.
2:28.7	Was it, was Appletree Yard your seventh book?
2:31.6	Seventh, yes, yeah.
	...

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