The Single Ladies of Jacaranda Retirement Village: An Uplifting and Hilarious Tale of Love and Friendship

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Hodder & Stoughton, Aug 22, 2019 - Biography & Autobiography - 368 pages

A moving, funny, heartwarming tale of love and friendship, for anyone who loved The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, The Keeper of Lost Things and Three Things about Elsie.

It's never too late to grow old disgracefully...

The life of 79-year-old pensioner Peggy Smart is as beige as the décor in her retirement village. Her week revolves around aqua aerobics and appointments with her doctor. The highlight of Peggy's day is watching her neighbour Brian head out for his morning swim.

Peggy dreams of inviting the handsome widower - treasurer of the Residents' Committee and one of the few eligible men in the village - to an intimate dinner. But why would an educated man like Brian, a chartered accountant no less, look twice at Peggy? As a woman of a certain age, she fears she has become invisible, even to men in their eighties.

But a chance encounter with an old school friend she hasn't seen in five decades - the glamorous fashionista Angie Valentine - sets Peggy on an unexpected journey of self-discovery.

Can she channel her 'inner Helen Mirren' and find love and friendship in her twilight years?

About the author (2019)

Joanna Nell is a British-Australian writer, GP and advocate for positive ageing. She is the author of five bestselling novels The Single Ladies of Jacaranda Retirement Village, The Last Voyage of Mrs Henry Parker, The Great Escape From Woodlands Nursing Home, The Tea Ladies of St Jude's Hospital and Mrs Winterbottom takes a Gap Year. Joanna's short fiction has won numerous awards and been published in magazines, journals and short story anthologies including Award Winning Australian Writing. She has also written for The Sydney Morning Herald's Spectrum and Sunday Life magazines.