AofA's Hot To Trot Talking Points
Every Friday
By the time this piece comes out, the AofA Awards 2025 will have happened and I probably won’t have had time to upload any photos of it… next week.
Not all interviews are enjoyable but ones - this is third time I’ve been on - with Robert Elms on BBC Radio London really are. He always asks interesting, slightly bantery witty questions and had genuine curiosity about the awards and the different categories. Suzanne and I really had fun and managed to get all the important points in there. Like the venue and where to buy tickets.
This quote from Jeanette Winterson caused a storm of discussion about the different nuances around love and what we mean by it as we get older. Here’s a couple of examples. These are quotes from three different people.
‘Seems to be that we are in a love defining quandary again. There are so many different types of ‘love’ that it seems almost spurious to attempt to attach any single definition to the word. The love of a ‘romantic partner’ cannot be equated to the love of one’s child or grandchild, nor to the love of a sibling, a parent or other family member or of a friend. When we use the same term (’love’) for such differing phenomena, the ensuing lack of clarity is inevitable. But still, because we understand that there are common emotional elements in those different ‘loves’, we strive to keep the same word attached to them all.
Alongside all of this, we steadfastedly attempt to quantify the word ‘love’ within our own individual frame of reference, assuming that others relate to and understand that. For me that’s folly. We can never know that at an intellectual level. All we have is intuition and a sense of ‘meshing’, mutual ‘connection’. We cannot ‘KNOW’ someone loves us, or KNOW we love them as an intellectual premise. It is an instinctual one. Love is ultimately as varied as any individual yet there has never been a satisfactory description or definition for it.’
‘further thoughts! I personally think an element of mystery is great in a “romantic” or perhaps long term relationship. More interesting.’
‘I’m convinced that love is often confused with lust, with the ritual of flirting and the bubbling excitement of knowing that you want to have steamy passionate sex with that person so much it’s all encompassing… for a while…
Of course that can be part of a deeper, more spiritual relationship and that’s wonderful.’
3. We all breathed a big sigh of - blimey, what a feat. This is 82 year old Anne Jones going up the ridiculously steep Mt Venoux for charity. What a woman. Shame about the focus on her grandmother status.
‘An 82-year-old grandmother has taken on one of the Tour de France’s most famous mountains to raise funds for aid to Gaza.
Anne Jones, from Lewisham, south London, rode 20km (12 miles) up Mont Ventoux in southern France to support Amos Trust’s Gaza appeal.
She battled hail, rain and fog as she cycled for six hours to the climb’s summit at 1,910m (6,270ft) above sea level.
Ms Jones raised £13,000 for the appeal.
The grandmother-of-six said she was “delighted” to have completed the feat and hoped it would change the “assumptions” people make when they see “an old face”.
“I want to encourage people to get out there,” said the retired psychotherapist and social worker.
“There are a lot of people who get to 65 and think their age means they can’t do things but my message is they can.”’
Couldn’t miss this one. Great photo of this old devil. Ian McKellen and Jeremy Corbyn were rumoured to be in panto The Wicked Witch. They are in it but it’s all pre-recorded.
5. I also paid tribute to brilliant writer and broadcaster, Ian Marchant who died last week at 67 from prostate cancer. He had recently published Breaking The Wave. Ian had one of those minds that roves and retains. I didn’t know him well but he was also very very funny. Devastating that he has gone. He posted on FB in the week of his death at a hospice a photo of teddy bears and the caption - half way to paradise. That was Ian all over. A couple of years ago, he answered the AofA Q&A.
AofA People: Ian Marchant - Writer, Broadcaster and Performer
Ian Marchant is an English writer, broadcaster and performer. He is best known for his non-fiction—mainly travel and memoir—but he has also written two novels and several other books, as well as short stories and newspaper articles. Following the completion of Parallel Lines and The Longest Crawl he has been invited to contribute to several programmes and newspaper features on the topics of railway travel and pub culture, and is often quoted in reviews of other books on these topics.[2] He has made several programmes for BBC Radio and UK regional television. Marchant is also a Reader in Culture and Technology at the Imaginary Free University of Radnorshire. He’s also a member of Advantages of Age. His new multi-textured book One Fine Day is now out on September Books – it starts with a rummage back into his family history and turns into a philosophical look at the world.
What is your age?
I’m 65
Where do you live?
I live in a 500-year-old house in the Radnorshire town of Presteigne.
What do you do?
Despite everything, I still manage to write books (my latest, One Fine Day, has just been published by September), and columns (for the Church Times). I still make radio shows (usually ‘Open Country’ for Radio 4). Also, I go up the cafe (Elda’s Colombian Coffee House, High Street, Presteigne) and go to the football (I support Brighton, but usually go to lower-tier games; I like watching Solihull Moors, for example, because I find the club really friendly, and enjoy their pies).
Tell us what it’s like to be your age?
One thing about being 65 is that I feel angry and frustrated that I can’t yet draw the pension that I seem to be entitled to, for some reason unknown to me, and that I haven’t really worked that much for. But it was something to look forward to. As a youthful punk boy in the Seventies, I was very attracted to Patti Smith, and, in particular, her track, ‘Free Money.’ I’m still waiting.
And yet The State seems very keen to keep me alive, because they spend vast amounts of money on meds, scans, tests, nursing care, etc. to keep me here. Why? What have they got lined up? What’s going on? I find the fact that the taxpayer spends thousands of pounds a month keeping me alive motivating. I want to try and offer value for money.’
We love Dorothea Taylor at 72 for being into heavy metal drumming.
‘It’s not everyday you see a 72-year-old whose favourite hobby is slaying heavy metal on drums. Meet Dorothea Taylor, On Drumeo’s YouTube channel she absolutely crushed Disturbed’s classic “Down with the Sickness”, laying down a hellaciously heavy groove.
The video has been viewed a whopping 18.8 million times, with 40,000 fans in the comments just amazed at Taylor’s firepower behind the kit. What stands out to me as a metal drummer myself, is how rock solid her timing and groove is. She would be an excellent addition to any band as this is at the core of what a drummer needs to lay down.’ From Music Man magazine
Wonderful profiles!