Don’t be surprised if you run into author Joanna Nell if you’re walking around Clareville. Literally. Why? Because part of her exercise routine involves walking backwards!
“The Chinese have been doing it for centuries,” she says. “It’s good for balance and coordination, back pain, arthritis, and problem solving. It stimulates the creative brain. Not to mention it’s a great way to meet people.”
But Jo will face audiences front-on when she meets people at this year’s Manly Writers’ Festival, where she is appearing as a guest speaker. The Festival will be held in various venues around Manly, 19-22 March.
The UK-born writer has had six novels published despite only starting to write books at the age of 52. All her published works of fiction have been national bestsellers. The most recent, and the novel she is ‘bringing’ to the festival, is The Funeral Crashers. “Writing is the one thing that gets better as you get older,” she says. “My body might not be doing what it used to but my writing is improving.”
This former GP is well-versed in growing old and her novels have made her an advocate for positive aging. “I call myself an ‘accidental advocate’,” she says. “I’m also invited to talk about aging and ageism at conferences.” She says the messages in her novels hopefully dispel stereotypes. “The prevailing thought is that if you are optimistic you live longer than if you are pessimistic,” she says.
Many would say walking backwards is a strong case for optimism!
“As a child I wanted to be a writer but life became busy,” she says. “When I eventually started, I noticed all of my characters were older.” Far from spying a gap in the market, Jo says it was a matter of the old adage: of writing about what you know.
Her knowledge and interest in older folk stems from her younger years working as a GP in nursing homes and aged-care facilities. This was also when she took a dedicated gap year working as a doctor on a P&O cruise ship. “It was the mid-90s, I’d just become a GP and I wanted to have an adventure.” It proved to be more of an adventure than she could have imagined on what was, effectively, a floating emergency department for 2000 people.
It proved to be more of an adventure than she could have imagined on what was, effectively, a floating emergency department for 2000 people.
Among the many stories this provided, it was also where Jo met her husband John, who was working as an engineer officer on the ship. Moreover, one of Jo’s novels, The Last Voyage of Mrs Henry Parker, was partly inspired by the experience.
Besides novels, her essays and short fiction have won multiple awards. She has been widely published in magazines, journals and literary anthologies. “My audience varies greatly,” she says. “Young and older people, men and women. Some older people who might not be as mobile or independent enjoy the escapism.” She recalls two older female readers whose correspondence said they’d been inspired by one of her novels to each buy costumes and get swimming!
Jo says their family came to Australia in 2003 and “never went back”. She and John have two adult daughters. As well as being a walker and part of a Northern Beaches bushcare group, Jo is an avid bird watcher and confesses to, in varying degrees, feature birds in all her stories.
And what would you do if you weren’t a writer? “I would be an archeologist. One of my daughters is an archeologist and I live vicariously through her.”
The Manly Writers’ Festival celebrates the depth of literary talent living and working on the northern beaches.
For programs and tickets visit manlywritersfestival.org.au
