A jazz player, a rock climber and Doris Lessing: life for women over 50, 1975
Women | The Guardian
A war opportunity, the first female ascent in the Alps, and an ex-Communist
In the final part of a national survey in October 1975, the Observer Magazine spoke to some older women ‘whose energy and enthusiasm suggest that, even at 50, life may only just be beginning’ (‘The Women of Britain – and what they think’).
The potted biographies were a random combination of achievements, quotes and a physical description, like a sort of weird Miss World. First up was Kathy, 50, jazz saxophonist whose ‘major break’ was the war: ‘All the men got called up, and I got my opportunity in what was predominantly a man’s world. I was a born busker.’
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