On this week’s episode, we’re joined by writer Kate Mulvey, whose summer romance began with a kiss under an erupting Etna and ended over breakfast in bed. At 64, Kate has made something of a speciality of examining her own 60s, and she doesn’t spare herself. She talks about the miscarriage at 41 that made her realise she had a lifestyle but not a life, the flowers she crushed by asking for olive oil instead, and the light-blocking, earplug-wearing sleep regime that may have cost her a man.

Kate is fiercely independent and, by her own admission, a little uncompromising. Karen wanted to slap her. Kaye thinks there’s an act two coming. A friend told her she wakes at 3am worrying she’s been too safe, while Kate worries she’s been too wild. So which is it? We want to know what you think Kate should do next.

Get in touch with your thoughts at podcast@htb60.com.

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On this week’s Midweek Catchup, we’ve swapped places. Kaye is sunbathing on a Spanish beach at the end of October, and Karen is back in stormy Scotland with a freshly re-broken toe, courtesy of a sunbed leg. There’s the flight home through the storm that nobody wants to repeat, Donna May bullying Kaye into a sea that was more Atlantic than Mediterranean, and a run of mysterious Amazon orders that turn out to be a Halloween costume in progress. Duck feathers, a tutu and a lace-up silk bodice. Make of that what you will. The Bananagram feud also takes a turn when Sue defects to Karen’s side.

We read your emails too. Shirley in Melbourne published a book for her 60th and wants to know who we turn to for advice, and Jackie writes with real honesty about what a teenager’s mental health struggles do to the whole family. On Friday, journalist Kate Mulvey met a man in Sicily, felt the whoosh, then watched it go sour. Should she get back in touch? Kaye says yes. Karen is less sure. We want your verdict once you’ve heard her out.

Get in touch with your thoughts at podcast@htb60.com.

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On this week’s episode, we’re joined by Amanda Prowse, who says she found her power at 50 thanks to an Instagram post about birthday cake. The bestselling novelist wasn’t published until her forties, and she talks about the fear that ran her life before that, losing her brother Simon, and why she now thinks getting older is a privilege.

She also talks about The Boy Between, the book she wrote with her son Josh about his depression, and what she got wrong trying to fix it. There’s the question from a therapist that changed how she saw him, her grief for her dogs Dottie and Bo, and a lifelong ambition to drive a lorry. Her latest novel, The Way Home, is out now.

Get in touch with your thoughts at podcast@htb60.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.