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Guest Blogs

Annabel and Grace: The award-winning magazine for older women

08 Jan 2021 | Written by Grace Carnegie-Brown

Annabel & Grace throwing leaves

Here at The Joy Club, we’re big fans of  content that’s inspiringly pro-age. That’s why we invited Grace Carnegie-Brown of the award-winning online magazine Annabel & Grace to talk about how she – and her oldest friend, Annabel Simons – started the magazine. It is specifically written for older women and you can enjoy it completely free. You can also read Annabel & Grace’s review of The Joy Club here.

Now, over to Grace…


Annabel and I have been really good friends for over forty years. In 2010 we decided to start a blog. To be honest, we hardly knew what a blog was but it seemed like a fun thing to do. 

As women in our fifties, we were somewhat of a novelty as the internet was firmly the province of young people in those days. But we relished the steep learning curve and in 2012 we were asked to talk about our experience at The Henley Literary Festival. From then on, we were totally hooked. 

A decade ago, there was very little of real interest geared specifically to our age group. The media treated anyone past 60 as though we were only interested in bingo, comfortable slippers or choosing a retirement home. Which is why our blog morphed into a pro-age online magazine for older women. 

It was a massive learning curve – setting up a website, getting to grips with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media, to say nothing of researching and writing about things of genuine interest to women like ourselves. Women who still have a zest for life and for living well.

Annabel & Grace

So what will you find on the Annabel & Grace website? In addition to fashion finds and style tips, there are travel ideas, wellbeing articles, book and TV reviews, product recommendations and entertaining stories from our guest contributors. The most popular section of our weekly magazine is our recipes. There are almost 800 of them, every one “tried and tasted” by us or friends who are keen cooks. 

We are now in our sixties and, quite frankly, still working very long hours. What drives us? The amazing feedback from our wonderfully loyal readers around the world who find our website a safe, uplifting and interesting place to visit. The fact that we are always learning something new. And because we never tire of sharing inspiring ideas and really useful information with other midlife women. 

Why not subscribe to our magazine – it’s absolutely free but you’ll receive a wealth of helpful, fun and upbeat information in your email inbox every week: Come and join us ladies!

Annabel & Grace - The award-winning website for older women