93-Year-Old Writes Her Way to Old Lady Freedom

93-year-old Lorna Page has become one of the oldest first-time novelists, with the debut of A Dangerous Weakness.

The book is described as a "raunchy" feminist thriller set in the Alps. Page used her advance to buy a country house, where she plans to locate her friends who would otherwise be destined for the old folks' home.

I'm not surprised that a great-grandmother can write but it's reassuring to see that she can also be published. A couple of years ago I taught creative writing to seniors and while the talent was there, it was often presented (especially by the women) with a sense of embarrassed humility. And yet these writers had so much more to say than most of their young twenty-something counterparts.

Unlike the undergrad writing class I taught, where every other story involved a couple having an argument (inevitably over the phone or in a car), the seniors wrote about abandonment, war, immigration and domestic joy and strife.

Their stories offered surprises (and of course, some cliches) but they were eager to get their lives on paper. And yes, there were some raunchy stories (one male student always described his female characters' "bosoms") which when read out loud had to complete against the snoring of one student who could never remain awake for the entire two-hour workshop.

In retrospect, I loved my class. Hearing aids were more popular than Havaianas and when I asked them to bring in snacks for our last class, not one but two students brought in homemade Christmas cake. The students, who ranged in age from 70 to 92, were earnest, passionate and committed. Lorna Page would have fit right in.