Andrea Mann

Andrea Mann is a British screenwriter

You’re Not Too Old, And It’s Not Too Late

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Not writing screenplays until my 40s, I thought I was a late bloomer. Then my 88-year-old mum published her first novel.

They’re not an obvious pairing, but bear with me: what do my 88-year-old mum from Leeds and 53-year-old Mexican actor Carlos Diehz, star of hit movie Conclave, have in common?

Apart from both having great taste in necklaces, the answer is: they’re both late bloomers.

Carlos Diehz – who plays the crucial role of Cardinal Benítez in the BAFTA-winning, Oscar-nominated film – was an architect for 30 years (still is, in fact), and didn’t start taking acting lessons until the Covid pandemic hit. Conclave is his very first feature film. 

My mum, Annette Mann, was a primary school teacher her whole working life – then in her retirement wrote a novel: an imagined sequel to Jane Austen’s Persuasion. This year, 250 years since Austen’s birth – and 88 years since Mum’s – we finally put Pride and Persuasion out in the world:

My mum isn’t the only person I know of smashing it out of the park at this point in her life, either.

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On Dreaming Whole Dreams, And Other Reminders For 2025

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The Holdovers (written by David Hemingson & directed by Alexander Payne)

I hope you and yours are having a fun-packed/no-activities-packed/delete as applicable festive season. As I write this, Greatest Hits Radio Christmas is playing in the background (damn right I’m going to keep listening to Christmas songs after 25th December), and Freddie Mercury is opining ‘Thank god it’s Christmas’. Right now, however, I’m thinking: thank god it’s Twixtmas. A time when the main activities in our house are, delightfully, getting up late (and then eating chocolate), watching movies (while eating chocolate) and going for long walks (only stopping to eat… you guessed it, Christmas cake).

My husband and I have a tradition on our Twixtmas walks to talk about the year we’ve each had, and share our hopes and goals for the year to come. So in the spirit of that, I thought I’d write about five things (fiiiive gooaaal thiiiings!) that 2024 taught me – or at least reminded me of – which I’m going to try to take into in 2025. They’re largely work/creativity-related, but not completely. And whatever work you do, or whatever your life may look like, I hope that one, some or all may be helpful for you, too.

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Who The Hell Put This Glass Ceiling Here?

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Grandpa Joe: You mean we’re going…
Willy Wonka: Up and out!
Grandpa Joe: But this roof is made of glass! It’ll shatter into a thousand pieces. We’ll be cut to ribbons!
Willy Wonka: Probably.

I was invited to give my first guest lecture last week: to final year students at the University of Leeds, talking about skills to help them navigate a career in the creative industries. I absolutely loved it, and not just because the exterior of the School of Fine Arts had a New York High School of Performing Arts vibe. I loved talking to the students, I loved being in their orbit, I loved being on campus… in a ‘Wouldn’t it be lovely to spend more time here and do more lecturing!’ kind of way, not a Never Been Kissed/17 Again bodyswap/time travel kind of way, I hasten to add.

One of the ideas I spoke to the students about was that of moving through our comfort zones and smashing our personal glass ceilings. And although I didn’t go into the following with them, being back in a university environment reminded me once more of my own glass ceilings, my deep-rooted childhood (and who am I kidding, adulthood) dream of following in the tap-dancing footsteps of The Kids From Fame, and the two incidents which quashed that dream.

Or rather: the two incidents I would for a long time blame for quashing that dream. Because it wasn’t until many years later that I realised I had, in my response to these events, well and truly quashed them myself.

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