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The New Retirement Role Models: Literary Characters By Emily Wilson
When Elly Griffiths (the pen name of Domenica de Rosa) started writing her series about forensic archeologist Ruth Galloway, who lives in a remote cottage by the sea in Norfolk, England, she made the main character about her age at the time, nearing 40. Galloway teaches at the university there and has a complicated love life involving Detective Chief Inspector Harry Nelson, whom she sometimes works with as an expert on bones. The first book in the series, "The Crossing Places," came out in 2009. In the 13th book, "The Night Hawks," retirement is a continuing plot point. Galloway is almost 50, and although Nelson is only 51, he's under a lot of pressure from his boss to retire after decades on the force, but he can't imagine himself without his job. "I think it's interesting that we define ourselves very much by our jobs," said Griffiths, now 58, of Brighton, England. "I'm lucky I'm in a job where you don't have to retire." Nowadays, a lot of people don't so much retire as go on to the next thing, Griffiths said. Her husband left his job as a corporate lawyer to study archaeology, and now he's considering a third career making wine in Italy.
young children, and it was less sweet. But it gave me the idea for Ruth, so it worked out for both of us."
Griffiths thinks crime fiction does a fairly good job of having older characters. Last year, she and 11 other bestselling authors wrote short stories featuring Agatha Christie's legendary detective Miss Marple.
Miss Marple in Miss Marple: Greenshaw’s Folly from PBS Re-reading Christie's books to prepare, Griffiths says she was struck by all the characters past age 60. Ian Rankin, the Scottish writer, has written a series of bestselling books featuring the detective John Rebus. Rebus officially retired in 2007's "Exit Music," but he has come back to investigate cold cases. Rankin has said that Rebus feels real to him, and that means he needs to age.
“I think it's very interesting that we define ourselves very much by our jobs. I'm lucky I'm in a job where you don't have to retire.”
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"When we first met, he mentioned he'd always wanted to be an archeologist," Griffiths said. "I thought, 'That's so sweet.' But when he went back to university to be an archeologist, we had two
Photo credit: PBS | MASTERPIECE
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