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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A Permission Slip From Me (And David Lynch)

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Even the young Mr Lynch felt he needed permission to be an artist. This is yours.

David Lynch had so much wisdom and empathy to share about creativity and life that it’s no surprise his recent passing led to an outpouring of admiration and love not just for his body of work but also for him as an artist and as a human being.

Whether he was talking about creative ideas being like fish (“We don’t really create an idea. We just catch them, like fish. No chef ever takes credit for making the fish”) or debunking the myth of the tortured artist (“You don’t have to suffer to show suffering”), the filmmaker and artist constantly exuded wonder and joy at both the world around him and the thrill of living “the art life”.

Of all the inspiring and fascinating video clips, stories and anecdotes that were being shared about Lynch following his death, one clip in particular, from a 2019 interview he did with Artforum, hit me. Because in it, Lynch describes the exact moment, aged around 14-15, that he realised he was allowed to be an artist:

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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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