People younger than me should not feel fearful, 60 is great

BBC presenter Reeta Chakrabarti has written her first novel. She talks to ELLA WALKER about new challenges and how Britain has changed

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REETA Chakrabarti is very chic, and it's not just because there's something sophisticated about becoming a novelist at 60.

“I'm a bit incredulous. I'll read about someone else who's 60 and think, ‘Oh, they’re quite old.’ And then I think, ‘Oh, my goodness, that’s me,” says Reeta, who turned 60 in December and is celebrating the release of her debut novel, Finding Belle, this month.

Turning 40 and 50 were tougher than 60 she reckons, but 39 and 49 were even harder “because I felt I was clinging on to the previous decade. But, then, the clock ticks on and absolutely nothing changes,” she says mildly.

Born in Ealing, London, this isn’t the first time the newsreader has smashed the age barrier, that pesky assumption that, once you're a certain age, it’s too late to try something new.

She became a presenter on BBC News at 49, having previously been a correspondent. In recent years she’s reported from Ukraine and most recently Rome, for Pope Francis’ funeral. “What can’t I do now that I could do when I was 35? Well, I can’t have more babies, but I don’t want more babies,” says the mum of three grown-up children. “Other than that, nothing. I would urge everybody younger than me not to feel fearful, 60 is great.”

Always a storyteller, Reeta says it would have “been a great regret”, had she not written a novel, but her BBC career meant focusing on factual news scripts, rather than fiction. As an avid reader and former Costa Book Awards chair, she adds: “There was a bit of humility in me thinking, ‘Well, what have I got to say?’”

But then 2020 hit, and with it, lockdown. “Broadcasters were key workers, so I was still going into the newsroom, but I wasn’t doing anything else,” she recalls. “So I thought, now or never.”