#155 Starting late, better than never

Penelope Fitzgerald’s “Afterlife; Essays and Criticisms” appeared on a top 10 books of the year 2003 list. One reviewer of the collection said she didn’t publish her first novel until she was 60, then became very successful before she died in 2000.

Another reviewer in the Washington Post commented about her: “Two grandfathers were archbishops; her father, Evoe Knox, became the editor of Punch. The extended clan included the illustrator Ernest Shepard, a brilliant World War II code breaker and the witty Catholic apologist and translator Ronald Knox. Little Penelope grew up in Hampstead, frequented Harold Monro's legendary Poetry Bookshop, met Walter de la Mare.”

So, I’m thinking she probably isn’t a role model for starting late, because she appears actually to have had an enriched early start.