The Lady Magazine

9 October 2015

Dear Readers, It was 51 years ago when cinema-goers first watched Sean Connery lead Honor Blackman astray in the hay in Goldfinger – but who can forget it? And has there been a more memorable Bond girl since? Certainly author Anthony Horowitz’s decision to revive Pussy Galore for the new Bond book, Trigger Mortis, will bring back old memories. However, like her contemporary, Her Majesty the Queen, this 90-year-old star of stage and screen rarely spends time looking back and barely seems to age, relying on sit-ups, singing and a thirst for life to keep her young. A thirst for life is not the term that immediately springs to mind when thinking of Lynda La Plante’s gritty detective Jane Tennison, first played by a bewitching Helen Mirren in the early 1990s drama series, Prime Suspect. Hers was more a thirst for the baddy. Still, the news that the character is set to return to our screens is enough to cheer up even the shortest of autumn days. True, there will be no Mirren, but we can’t have everything. What we can have, though, is more treats. Like something ravishing in russet from our fashion pages. Or on a larger scale, a complete lifestyle change and a move to one of our beautiful retirement properties. You can never be too young to start dreaming of the future. Until next week, best wishes, Sam Taylor