It’s International Women’s Day! That makes it the perfect timing for a post I’ve been meaning to write for a month as part of an occasional series on things that inspire me: in this case, older female fictional characters.

I have no stats to support this, but I’m pretty sure the average age of a female protagonist in a novel is somewhere between sixteen and thirty four. Which is a shame, because old women are fascinating! So many of our narrative conventions about women are all about them in the roles of maiden and mother, with very little attention paid to the crones. But being a crone can sometimes free women from narrative convention, purely because they are not expected to follow the same kinds of rules as the younger, prettier, more sexually available members of the species. So many stories rely on a woman’s beauty or the beginnings of romance as the main focus of her character. What do you get when you strip all that away? You get character.

Here are some of my favourites – but I’d love to hear your examples in the comments. Who’s your favourite feisty old fictional lady?

Miss Marple, by Agatha Christie.
An absolute classic. As a child I was drawn to these books by Agatha Christie even as I rolled my eyes and was bored by Poirot. There’s something utterly delicious about the sweet old lady with the knitting who seems harmless, but is actually sharp as a tack and the scourge of murderers everywhere. Of course, you do have to worry a bit about how many of her acquaintances end up murdered… One of the things I most enjoyed was how often Miss Marple would be paired with a younger woman, and the way that she found out so much simply by chatting amiably and having a cup of tea. That woman could work a cup of tea like no one else! My absolute favourite Miss Marple is Sleeping Murder, because of the way that she takes a young woman whom everyone else thinks is going a bit bananas, and quietly questions all her assumptions, allowing the truth to unpeel like a piece of aged cornflowers-and-poppies wallpaper.

Mrs Bradley (Diana Rigg)
While I have read and enjoyed the original books of this particular heroine, it’s Diana Rigg’s version of the character in the Mrs Bradley Mysteries whom I fell in love with. The 1920′s atmosphere, and the elegant elderly flapper who dispenses witticisms and copies of Marie Stopes where-ever she goes, while keeping up a sizzling but restrained flirtation with her adoring younger chauffeur, made for perfect TV chemistry. I was very excited to get this on DVD for Christmas! The books are good, but don’t come with that postmodern “I was totally Mrs Peel in my youth” vibe that made me love the TV show.

Calypso Grant (Jennifer Ehle/Rosemary Harris, by Mary Wesley)
I fell in love with Mary Wesley’s novels because of the TV adaptation of The Camomile Lawn, and because I was stunned to find that the clever, witty, sexy TV series was such a stunningly accurate version of the book, which is about a family living through wartime Britain, and time shifts to the early 1980′s. Calypso, during the Blitz (played in the TV miniseries by Jennifer Ehle 3 years before Pride and Prejudice), is blonde and vivacious, intensely sexual, emotionally closed off and mercenary, determined to marry for money and to live life otherwise on her own terms. Once she lands her rich husband and bears him an heir, she revels in behaving badly in all other ways, including adultery on a scale that can only be described as epic. She is exactly the kind of character, in other words, who always comes to a bad end. Instead, Calypso as an old woman (played on TV by Ehle’s real mother Rosemary Harris) is a remarkably happy and content person, who is at peace with herself and her choices, and has a better sense of humour than any of her contemporaries. She relishes in particular the colossal joke that she ended up falling in love with, of all people, her husband.

What I love most about Calypso is that her author has cleverly seeded her into just about every other novel she wrote. Mary Wesley published her first novel for adults when she was in her seventies, and put out a short but intense run of marvellous books before deciding to stop, several years before she died, declaring that “if you haven’t got anything to say, don’t say it.” Her age gave her a great perspective on story, and The Camomile Lawn isn’t the only of her books that shows the way that people change and grow over very long periods of time. I love the fact that several of her books, whether they be set in the War, the 50′s, 80′s or 90′s, have reference to or appearances by Calypso, Hector and their army of nephews. We get further hints of this odd, marvellous life that she led, and the way that she was seen differently by so many people in her family and life.

The best old ladies are the ones with a past, after all!

Evelyn Smythe (Maggie Stables, various authors)

This character was created as a new companion for the Sixth Doctor in the Doctor Who audio play range published by Big Finish, and she is a big reason for the renaissance of Colin Baker as an actor (in the minds of Doctor Who fans) as well as the character of his Doctor. Evelyn, an elderly history professor, is a far better foil for this brusque, erratic Doctor than any of the young women who were paired with him. Having already lived a long time and spent much of that time telling people they were wrong, she doesn’t let him get away with anything and it’s so very, very good for him. Their partnership is one of equals, and his respect for Evelyn speaks volumes as for his character.

Having been diagnosed with a weak heart shortly before joining the Doctor on his travels, Evelyn never lets her illness get in the way of adventure, and her awareness of her own impending mortality (and the fact that she conceals this from the Doctor) adds an extra frisson to her choices, and the way that she interacts with this man who looks like he could be her son (though of course the actors are similarly aged, we have to pretend it’s the Colin Baker from the 1980′s).

There are many marvellous Evelyn stories and moments – I haven’t even listened to her early appearances yet! But I can absolutely recommend a series of linked stories (Project Twilight, Project Lazarus, Arrangements for War, Thicker Than Water, Project Destiny**, A Death in the Family**) which show her at her best. Great questions about the Doctor’s essential character and relationship with humanity are raised here, and those who enjoy the theory that the Doctor subconsciously chooses each incarnation to redress the flaws/failings of the previous one will really enjoy what these stories have to say about the Sixth and Seventh Doctors.

Mostly, though, I love Evelyn herself – compassionate, kind, sympathetic, sharp, sarcastic, vulnerable, angry and determined to make the world (whichever world she happens to be on) a better place. We see her fall in love in one of the best and most realistic companion romances, we see her mourn friends, and we see her challenge the Doctor very credibly. Doctor Who fans had been asking for an older female companion since the brilliant performance of Beatrix Lehmann as Professor Rumford in the Stones of Blood since 1978, and it was Big Finish and Maggie Stables who showed how effectively you could do that.

I cannot state enough how impressed I have been with the portrayal of women in the Big Finish Doctor Who range – especially, I have to say, as the majority of writers, directors and producers on that team are men. Long before New Who made the reinvention of Doctor Who look easy, Big Finish had already expanded the role and importance of the companion, and peopled a universe with strong, capable, varied female characters who not only hold their own with the male characters (and indeed, the Doctor, who is a force unto himself) but are often allowed to eclipse them, without retribution. Possibly there’s another blog post in the offing, entirely on that subject…

** Evelyn is not actually in Project Destiny but it’s an essential piece of the puzzle. Also, while this sequence of stories follow directly on from each other and make a lovely self-contained arc, I would be remiss in my duties as a Big Finish fangirl without noting that Project Destiny and A Death in the Family represent the culmination of another arc of stories, those of the companion Hex, whom I adore above all reason, and those two will mean a lot more to you if you have also got to know some of his adventures with Ace and the Doctor. Some of the best ones to get to know this particular TARDIS team and their relationships with each other are probably The Harvest, Nocturne, Forty-Five and Enemy of the Daleks though you’re missing some brilliant stories if you only stick to those.

Tags: ace, agatha christie, awesome old ladies, big finish, diana rigg, doctor who, evelyn smythe, feminist heroes, hex, inspirations, jennifer ehle, mary wesley, miss marple, mrs bradley, murder mysteries, seventh doctor, sixth doctor