Are you a SWOFTY, perhaps? Which stands for Single Women Over Fifty - although, for the purpose of this evening, we're taking creative licence and changing it to Sexy Women Over Fifty.
Because you don't have to be single to enjoy this event. You don't even have to be over 50 - as long as you enjoy fizz, sex-talk & shopping, you'll fit right in!
Join us for an fun evening of talking sex in general and sex for the modern mid-life woman in particular. We'll talk about the funny, the unexpected, the difference between sex in your younger days vs sex now, and there'll be a chance of putting your own questions to our panel of experts.
Also, there'll be plenty of time to browse and shop all the wonderful treats that our shop has to offer- investing in a new luxury vibrator for your SWOFTY'ness, perhaps?
Date: Friday 25th November
Time: 6.30pm
Address: Sh! 57 Hoxton Square. London N1 6B
Price: FREE
Tickets: Scroll down to the bottom of this blog post to register
Meet The Panel
Christine Webber originally trained as an opera singer but had to re-think her career plans when her voice professor told her: ‘Your voice is OK, but your legs are very much better!’Musical theatre beckoned. There was some success. But not much.
In 1979, she became a news presenter for Anglia TV. At last she had found something she enjoyed that other people thought she was good at. It was such a happy relief that she stayed for 12 years. Towards the end of that period, In Honour Bound, her first novel, was published.
After leaving Anglia Television, she became an agony aunt for various publications including TV Times, Best, Dare and BBC Parenting. And she wrote a relationship advice column for The Scotsman and one for Woman, called Sexplanations. She also regularly broadcast advice on Trisha, The Good Sex Guide …Late and from the BBC’s Breakfast sofa.
During her ‘problem page’ years, she decided to train as a psychotherapist. This led to her starting a small practice in Harley Street, which she still has.
Christine has written twelve non-fiction books including How to Mend a Broken Heart and Get the Happiness Habit. But finally, she has returned to her original love of writing fiction with Who’d Have Thought It?
She says: ‘Mid-life women are fascinating. Having explored their hopes, fears, insecurities and options in my 2010 guide for female baby boomers, Too Young to Get Old, I thought it would be an absorbing challenge to fictionalise what I had learned. This book is the result.’
Sarah Berry, Psychosexual & relationship therapist, has a private practise in Holloway Road where she sees adults of all ages.An ex Sh! Girl, Sarah still keeps her hand in with the team as an agony aunt and speaker at events such as our Vaginismus Awareness Day.
Most recently, Sarah contributed to an article about how to make sex after 50 the best of your life - read the full article here.
She has also given advice to shows; such as Radio 4’s Women’s Hour, assorted programmes on LBC, and publications; including The Times, The Daily Mail, Forum, Fiesta, DIVA, Men’s Health, Company, Love It!, Metro and The Sun. Find out more about her at www.sarahberrytherapy.co.uk
Zak Jane Keir is an author and also editor of the sex-positive anthology Silver Desire - Erotic Stories of Older Women, a collection of stories about 50-plus women that proves passionate sex doesn’t end when the menopause starts.Says Keir; "Older women rarely feature in erotic fiction, yet many of us find our libidos as active as ever in later life. This anthology showcases the fact that good sex isn’t just for the young."
Silver Desire - Erotic Stories of Older Women, the brand new anthology edited by Zak Jane Keir is available for purchase at Sh!You're never too old to rock and roll - or to do the horizontal bop, for that matter... This anthology focuses on that often-neglected sexual being, the older woman. Ten writers offer up a variety of takes on lust and love in later years; wistful, joyful, affirmative, filthy or raging against society's expectations. There are holiday flings, blind dates, settling long-unfinished business, a bawdy barbecue and a horny handyman. Slip between the covers and see what the Silver Age has to offer. Silver Desire features stories from Elizabeth Coldwell, Jillian Boyd, Spencer Dryden, Pepper Valentine, Charlie Powell, Madeline Moore, F. Leonora Solomon, Jordan Monroe, Hannah Lockhardt and Zak Jane Keir.
Who'd Have Thought It? is Christine Webber's latest novel, available at Sh!Cambridge GP Annie Templeton is dumped, suddenly and brutally, in Venice, by her surgeon husband while they are celebrating their 30th anniversary. He is in love with that cliché – the younger, dumber, blonder female.
The real action begins a year later when Annie wakes up, having had a saucy dream about a newscaster, and feels suddenly that life as a single woman could be fun. Her best friend tells her that the Department for Work and Pensions has coined an acronym (SWOFTY) for single women over 50 – and she is immensely cheered up to find that she is part of a sassy trend and not a sad old ‘has been’.
However, she soon realises that being single in your fifties is very different from being single in your twenties.
How, she wonders, do people of my age – with careers, adult children doing unwise things with unwise people, ageing parents making increasing demands on your time, and friends falling ill, or in or out of love – ever have the time and energy to find a new partner?
Who’d Have Thought It? is a romantic comedy, but it is set against a backdrop of all the turbulence which typifies mid-life in 2016. It’s a novel which will make you laugh and cry – often at the same time.
"A truly heart warming and heart rending story of being unexpectedly single again in your fifties – and a brilliant reminder that we really don’t know what goes on behind other people’s closed doors.” Dr Dawn Harper – GP and TV Doctor
“Insightful, witty and engaging, Christine Webber’s writing shows a complete understanding about people and the realities of their relationships.” Julie Peasgood – actress, TV presenter and author of The Greatest Guide to Sex
“Who'd Have Thought It? is thoroughly engrossing, entertaining and well-written. If it had Joanna Trollope's name on it nobody would be surprised.” Bel Mooney – Daily Mail columnist
