Frank, funny and telling it like it is Maureen Lipman and Irma Kurtz share their outlooks on the passing of years.
Lipman’s Past-it Notes recalls the adventures and misadventures of a career which has spanned more than 40 years and is only getting more interesting -her most recent role involved abseiling down a twenty-foot tree carrying a chainsaw.
Following the exploration from Then Again: Travels in Search of My Younger Self, About Time, Kurtz proves herself a fearless investigator of the art of growing old –its pleasures and griefs- and uncovers a fascinating cast of characters who offer their own takes on ageing. She also reveals the only tool that sharpens with age: lifelong curiosity.
Irma Kurtz was born in New Jersey and grew up in New York. After graduating in English Literature from Barnard College, Columbia University in 1956 she moved to Europe, first to Paris and then to London where, in 1970, she joined the brand new Cosmopolitan as it’s first Agony Aunt. She has contributed to virtually every national paper and is a frequent broadcaster on radio and TV. She recently moved to Bloomsbury after twenty years in Soho, London and describes herself as a ‘last-time buyer’. She also keeps a small hiding place in an unfashionable region in Northern France. The mother of a son, Irma Kurtz became a grandmother in March 2005.
Maureen Lipman was born and it was only after that that her life really began. Her birthplace, Hull, twinned naturally with Sierra Leone, has produced many pioneers but, unlike Sir William Wilberforce, Amy Johnson and Arthur J Rank, Ms Lipman has shown little altruism and has chosen instead to do what the late actor, Sir Patrick Troughton called, ‘Shouting in the evenings’. She is 62, 47 or 109 depending on which paper you read and has never been in ‘The Bill’,. She has a dog, a rabbit and no love-children.
Naomi Gryn is a writer and filmmaker. Highlights of a wide-ranging career include playing a hairdresser in The Crying Game and winning a gold DA&D award shortly before abandoning what might have been a lucrative career as a commercials producer to make documentaries for radio and television. To find out more about her work, see www.naomigryn.com.
