Juicy Crones : Inspirational travel stories of women embracing life post menopause

The average woman will live 30 years after menopause – and as Jay Courtney discovered, you can have lots of fun in that time. After retiring from a distinguished career in education and health, she found life rather beige. "I realised that I didn't know how to do this part of my life," she says. "There was no route map to follow, only a looming 'Exit' sign, so I went on a quest to find a colour that suited me." Her solution? To blend travel and inspirational writing, seeking out women whose experiences resonate and who are embracing their "third act" with gusto.

Written by a Telegraph travel-writing competition winner and former Women's Hour guest, Juicy Crones is a joyous celebration of post-menopausal women life travellers. "Crones were revered as wise women, warriors, speakers of uncomfortable truths, carrying with them the wisdom of life," says Courtney. "As for the 'juicy' part, this is me thumbing my nose at language often used of older women as 'dried-up', wrinkled, barren. Many older women I have met have been the very opposite: beautiful, vibrant, outrageously funny, full of self-knowledge, free-spirited. There is no better group to be part of. What we lack in collagen we make up for in wisdom!"

This unique debut has an infectious enthusiasm for living life to the full, blending adventure with feminism, women's health with well-being, and autobiography with self-help. A book for the UK's 12 million "crones" and anyone who shares their life, for women adventurers and for fans of Raynor Winn's The Salt Path, Caitlin Moran's More than a Woman and Helen Lewis' Difficult Women. As Courtney says: "This is our third act, the time that many women learn to ROAR!"