Kate's one for the ages

WINSLET'S DEBUT IN DIRECTOR'S CHAIR ALL THANKS TO WRITER SON

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SCREEN STAR: Kate Winslet with her mum and dad in 1996 and, below, teen Kate with her family

GOODBYE June is a sweet and tender weepie, telling the story of four squabbling siblings who come together to bid farewell to their cancer-ridden mother over the Christmas season.

What is remarkable is that the screenwriter is only 21 years old. Joe Alfie Winslet Mendes, now using the stage name Joe Anders, has been acting onscreen since the age of 15 and honing his skills as a writer off it.

"He's always written," says mum Kate now, smiling proudly, when we speak by Zoom. "So it didn’t surprise me at all that he wanted to get a place at a screenwriting school in London. As part of the course he was asked to write a short film, and the teacher encouraged him, 'Write what you know."

For Joe, one of the most highly charged emotional events in his life so far had been the death of Kate's beloved mother, who died of ovarian cancer in 2017.