82-Year-Old Gets Three-Book Deal

Living proof that it’s never too late to pursue a dream, 82-year-old Myrrha Stanford-Smith just received a three-book deal from Honno, a UK-based women’s publishing company, according to the BBC. She sent the manuscript for A Great Lie, a fictional take on the contention between William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, to the publishers on a whim. She had published a children’s story with BBC Radio Wales and received good feedback, so she decided to take her chances with the novel.

The grandmother from Anglesey, an island off the coast of Wales, said she was “gobsmacked” after being offered the deal. “I had to put the phone down and ring them back as I was so taken aback by the whole thing,” she told BBC. “I’d been waiting for the manuscript to be sent back really, rejected. It was such a wonderful surprise.”

Stanford-Smith is a teacher and director who graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and recently started the Ucheldre Repertory Company.

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