Ann Richardson’s most popular book, The Granny Who Stands on Her Head, offers a series of reflections on growing older. Subscribe to her free Substack newsletter, where she writes fortnightly on any subject that captures her imagination. Ann lives in London, England with her husband of sixty years. Please visit her website for information on all her books: http://annrichardson.co.uk.

Latest Posts By Ann Richardson

3 months ago

Kind Cooking: The Art of Preparing Food for Sick People

Are you one of the many people who are looking after someone who is very ill? Perhaps a spouse, sibling, parent or friend? As you well know, it is a highly tiring and difficult task, however much it is undertaken with love. You may be overloaded with advice…

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3 months ago

My Experience of Falling Down the Stairs

It was the middle of the night, and I had gotten up to pee. I noticed a light coming from downstairs. That’s strange, I thought. No one else here but my sleeping husband. Oh dear, I will need to go down and turn it off. That was the immediate plan…

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4 months ago

The Painful Truth About Unhappy Grandmothers

There are many happy grandmothers about. I know; I am one of them. We play with the kids, we bore our friends by talking about how wonderful they are and we generally feel very pleased with the way grandchildren have enhanced our lives…

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4 months ago

Let’s Talk About Our Lifelong Search for Intimacy

If the infamous ‘man from Mars’ were to suddenly arrive on this earth, what would he think that people were all about? From scanning traditional media, not to mention social media, I would surmise that he would see a search for wealth…

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5 months ago

What It Means to Say “I am Not a Grandmother”

We do not usually identify ourselves by what we are not. We do not say I am not blonde or not good at knitting or I do not come from a large family. Nor do other people think about these things when they think of us…

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5 months ago

Do We Purposefully Look for Variety in Our Lives?

Variety is the spice of life, so they say. I’ve heard that saying so many times, I can’t even remember when I first heard it. More importantly, I’m not sure I’ve given it much thought. But it is worth thinking about. As we settle into our later years, we can easily get into a routine […]

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5 months ago

Old Age Is Not Another Country

When I was young – pick any age up to 55 or so – I definitely thought that the future was a foreign country. It would be strange to me, and it would be difficult to cope with. And they would definitely “do things differently” there…

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5 months ago

Does Being a Grandma Change How You Look at Your Own Grandmother?

Now we are 60 (as A.A. Milne of Christopher Robin fame might have said), we are of an age to think about grandmothers. Perhaps you are a grandmother or hoping to be one. Perhaps your friends are grandmothers…

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5 months ago

Celebrating a Diamond Wedding Anniversary

There are certain things we all know about our country’s ways. You grow up knowing them, like the National Anthem. Or, in the US, how to salute the flag. You can’t even remember where you first learned them…

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6 months ago

My Experience of Getting Covid After All This Time

I got diagnosed with Covid two weeks ago. But it is SO last year! No, worse than that, it is so 2021!! Nobody gets it now. The world has moved on. Hardly anyone wears masks these days. Or worries about the odd cough. We all think it has gone away…

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