The Saga Magazine columnist talks about her biggest regret, her recent MBE and writing her debut novel.
With her 60th birthday fast approaching, the Countdown Lexicographer and Saga Magazine columnist shared her thoughts and experiences.
“I always want to say it’s not giving a damn about what people think – but I haven’t reached that point yet.
"All my friends will tell you I am an inveterate worrier. I’m in a state of disbelief about turning 60. It’s like I blinked and it happened.
"I look at women around my age, such as Nigella Lawson and Yasmin Le Bon and I think if 60 means nothing to them, then I have nothing to fear either."
"I don’t have any photos from school or university, apart from official ones. I was thinking about how much my kids document their lives in ways they can revisit.
"For all the perils of mobile phones, I wish I’d been able to chart my life visually. But I hate being photographed, so it’s probably a blessing."
"Ensuring we take the wisdom of age more seriously and venerate older people rather than dismissing them. We see somebody in their 80s or 90s, and our immediate reaction is, ‘Ah, bless’.
"It’s patronising and it also dismisses the huge amount of knowledge and experience they have to impart. In other cultures there’s not that ready dismissal."
"Retire comes from the French word retirer, to withdraw. It means a kind of withdrawal from life, whereas I feel I am just getting started.
"Perhaps we need a new word for retirement, one that means an embracing of other things."
"I did a podcast [Something Rhymes with Purple] with Gyles Brandreth, who’s 76 and works harder than anyone in their 30s, 40s or 50s.
"He lives to work, it defines him; he hates Christmas Day because he has to take the day off."
"I’ve been aware of the dark underbelly of language for such a long time. There are certain words that have a history you’d never guess.
"For example: to thrill someone originally meant to pierce them with a knife; only later did it come to mean pierce with excitement.
"I thought it would be fun to explore not just the darker side of language, but the darker side of the people who document it."
"Richard has absolutely led the way for this kind of fiction. I was worried I would be seen as jumping on his bandwagon but I think I have gone off in a different direction because of the linguistics.
"Mine is about words, words, words, and it’s more of a mystery than a murder."
"The award was totally unexpected and I was delighted by the news, though I like to think it was on behalf of word lovers everywhere!
"I was particularly chuffed with the reason given for it, which was services to language and literature. That felt like the greatest tribute of all."
"I didn’t but I do wish my dad, Malcolm, could have known. He died last year. When I was at school I won a short-story competition. It was about being chased through a wood, incredibly melodramatic. But I have always remembered his pride in me.
"He told me I should go back to writing stories. My novel is dedicated to him."
Susie's debut novel Guilty by Definition (Zaffre, RRP £16.99) is out now.
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