Julia Tuffs and Amy Beashel are two very different authors writing in two very different genres with two very different female leads.
What binds these fictional and non-fictional women?
Simple: they’re middle aged and verging on mad.

Is it a coincidence that both authors wrote teen fiction before writing mid-life fiction? What makes middle-aged women such interesting characters? Are middle-aged women actually mad, or is it that by the time they reach 45, they’re no longer prepared to put up with the same old same old and are instead determined to bring about real-life change?

These and other questions will be posed by Kate Weston and then chewed over by all three authors with welcome contributions from the audience.

JULIA TUFFS
Having worked in TV for six years before re-training as a primary school teacher, and via all compass points of London and the Isle of Wight, Julia now lives in Teddington. She aims to write the kinds of books that will have people laughing out loud – and crying – on their commute. Her two ‘Hexed’ novels for young adults both won awards. Uproariously funny and deeply human, her latest novel ’45 Things To Do Before You’re 45′ is an all-too relatable story of what it means to be alive and how much living we all still have to do. In the hope of re-discovering her sense of self, the central character Charlie begins writing a list: 45 things to do before she’s 45. Eat an oyster, Take up parkour, Read War and Peace, Take ecstasy, Try stand-up comedy, Go to a sex club. Determined to complete them all, she embarks on a chaotic odyssey through her own spectacular midlife crisis, challenging herself to become the person she wants to be. But what happens if we’re not that person? How do we learn to let them go? Or does something else have to give?

AMY BEASHEL
Amy lives in Shropshire with her husband and two kids. Her debut novel ‘The Sky is Mine’ was nominated for a CILIP Carnegie Medal 2021, longlisted for the Branford Boase Award 2021 and shortlisted for the Bristol Teen Book Award 2020. Incidentally, she is also officially the fastest woman in the world on a space hopper. Her latest novel ‘Bad Manners’ is a fierce and addictive read about lust and power, the love we want versus the love we take, and the tinderbox secrets that hide so well in the heart of families: ‘A nuanced exploration of the deep rooted misogyny that underscores society and the effect it has on women and girls’.

KATE WESTON
London based author Kate is a former stand-up comedian. The author of four YA books, as well as her adult comedy murder mysteries ‘You May Now Kill The Bride’ and ‘How to Make a Killing’. Her YA feminist thriller, ‘Murder on a School Night’, was shortlisted for the YA Book Prize 2024 and its sequel ‘Murder on a Summer Break’ was shortlisted for a CrimeFest award.