How To Be 60 with Kaye Adams

On this week's episode, we're joined by Louise Doughty, who found a rusted black suitcase at the bottom of her late mum's wardrobe and nearly put it out with the bins. Inside were scores of undated letters charting the secret affair her parents had in 1950s Melton Mowbray, when her dad was a married man and her mum was his boss's secretary. Louise tells us how she pieced them together, why her parents took the story to their graves, and how losing them to Alzheimer's and a sudden heart attack almost hid who they really were. There's also a sister who kept fishing things back out of the bin liners. She was right, as it turns out.
Louise also talks about what clearing out a family home teaches you about stuff, why 63 is her favourite decade so far, and admits she may have been the worst-dressed student of the early 80s. Her memoir, On This Spot Fell One Tear of Love, is out now. Whether you've cleared a parent's house or are dreading it, this one stays with you.
Get in touch with your thoughts at podcast@htb60.com.

Louise Doughty’s new book, On This Spot Fell One Tear of Love, is available now in hardback, ebook and audiobook.
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On this week's Midweek Catchup, Karen is up at the family home in a winged velour chair that Kaye swears belongs in a care home. She's been foraging for chanterelles, the only mushroom she can identify, and with nothing else to carry them in, she used a dog poo bag. Then she took it to the counter of the local gift shop. She's not going back. Kaye is wondering whether her mango habit is making her pre-diabetic, looks back on 37 years of friendship with Shereen Nanjiani after their Sunday on STV Radio, and has been sent a blackmail email about a porn addiction she definitely doesn't have. Plus Karen's big toe has grown, and a breast surgeon tries his best to read her knee MRI. Your emails now have a new home in the midweek, starting with Jennifer from Corfu, her husband and a mosquito spray that went where no mosquito spray should go.

On Friday we're joined by Louise Doughty, author of Apple Tree Yard, talking about her first non-fiction book, a memoir built on letters her parents wrote to each other. Get in touch with your thoughts at podcast@htb60.com.
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On this week's episode, we're joined by Julia Macklin, who was 15 in 1983 when her baby daughter was taken from her for adoption. Not 1953. 1983. Julia grew up in a devout Catholic family in Manchester and was told, again and again, that letting her baby go was the kindest thing she could do. She talks about the short letters from the Catholic Rescue Society describing another family bonding with her daughter, the grief she was never allowed to have, and the day, 18 years later, when a nun opened a door and said, she's here.
Julia is one of the women in Stolen Babies, the BBC documentary now on iPlayer, and it's the first time she has spoken publicly about what happened. She turns 60 this year and says she has finally found her voice, along with a new talent for being stroppy in shops.
Get in touch with your thoughts at podcast@htb60.com.
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On this week's Midweek Catchup, we find out what Kaye does when a friend is pouring her heart out, barefoot, and the dog has left something under the chair. The short answer is nothing. We also compare first flats. Karen bought hers in Edinburgh for £12,000, sold it for £19,000, and was sure nobody would ever pay more. Kaye's two-up two-down in Birmingham cost £27,500 in 1986 and set her up for life. There's five minutes of staring at Sting across the Loose Women couch, and a curry squash Karen is slightly frightened of.

Kaye is back on the radio this Sunday, co-presenting STV Radio from 9 till 12 with her old Scottish Television friend Shireen Nanjiani. And on Friday we're joined by Julia Macklin, whose story featured in the BBC documentary Stolen Babies. Her baby was taken from her in 1983, and she turns 60 this year.
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On this week's episode, we're joined by Francesca Hicks, who saw an easyJet recruitment story on the morning news at 62 and had applied by the time she got home. She'd been sending CVs out for months and getting nowhere. Employers looked at the date of birth, she says, and assumed a grey rinse. Then came the taster day, the five o'clock starts, six exams, slide training and swimming training, and a set of wings her youngest son still tells her he's proud of. Now she can meet 500 new people in a day, has had a passenger of 100 on board, and is planning to keep flying until she's 70 at least. Because she wants to, not because she has to.

EasyJet has just reopened its Returnships recruitment for over-50s, with applications from September, so if Francesca's story has you wondering, now is the moment to look.

Get in touch with your thoughts at podcast@htb60.com.
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