Feisty, Fabulous and 50 Plus. 21 women share their candid and compelling stories

Feisty, Fabulous & 50+ is a collection of 21 ‘warts and all’ stories written by women navigating their way through their 50s and beyond. The stories are inspirational, frank and uplifting as each woman tackles her own set of challenges – from financial insecurity and discrimination to life-threatening illnesses – all recounted with humour, insight and self-deprecation. A true testament to understated strength and resilience. The idea for the book came to Julie Ankers after she decided to semi-retire to the Blue Mountains 23 years after managing her own business in Sydney. Planning to work both as a volunteer and locally one or two days a week, the frustration she experienced finding part-time work and stepping back from her longstanding business resulted in her thinking that many others could be experiencing the same. Indeed, how were other women at this stage of their lives managing? So she decided to invite 21 randomly selected women over 50 from her contacts around Australia to share their stories. Each contributor was asked to be open and honest about her ‘third age’ experiences. It is interesting that many of the women talked about coming ‘full circle’, choosing to start their story from the beginning of their lives, feeling that they were the sum total of their lives’ experiences. Like Julie, some of the women also had their own businesses and spoke about this aspect of their lives in some detail. It was also interesting that many of the book’s contributors had expe...