Wisdom and Wonder: Intergenerational Writing

Veronica Henry, renowned for her multi-generational fiction since her debut Honeycote, has shifted her focus to older characters as she turned sixty. Here she talks about her evolving perspective and the inspiration behind her latest novel.

Since my very first novel, Honeycote, I’ve always written multi-generational, multi-protagonist
fiction, because I love all the different viewpoints and the different attitudes to the same situation. I
feel it reflects real life as we know it, almost like writing a soap opera in book form. But as I get older
(I was sixty in August) the balance has changed from focusing on the younger characters to the
older ones. And it turns out that the older characters are much more interesting to write! They have
so much more life experience, so much more to say and, actually, their dilemmas can have higher
stakes.

In The Impulse Purchase, I wrote about a grandmother, her daughter and her granddaughter who
join together to take over a rundown village pub. It is seventy-year-old Cherry who drives the
takeover, and therefore the plot. I wanted to reflect an older heroine who was more like the seventy-somethings I know and who I wasn’t seeing reflected in fiction. Many of my friends are
septuagenarians who are still doing incredible things, with successful careers they have no intention
of leaving behind, who are having amazing adventures and who certainly haven’t resorted to a
shampoo and set, sensible shoes and elasticated waistbands.

I hope Cherry is an inspiration to readers. She has courage, and joie de vivre, and immense style. She
is proof that you can still take a risk even after you’ve reached traditional retirement age. That the
world holds endless opportunities and the trick is to keep taking them. 

But I also wanted to reflect on how the generations learn from each other. Cherry is a role model for
both her daughter and granddaughter, but she learns from them too. Knowledge and wisdom travel
upwards as well as downwards and perhaps that is the key to staying young – to keep learning from
the next generation, as well as handing down everything you have learned.

by Veronica Henry

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