KATHY Biggs worked for Age Concern before being made redundant 6 years ago.

Now, she is living proof that age is no barrier after publishing her first novel, aged 64.

The Luck is about an Irishman who leaves home and begins a new life in America as a crop duster.

And yet Kathy, who lives in Llanwrtyd Wells, is the one sprinkling a little stardust on her own life, which has altered so dramatically in recent years.

From being made redundant six years ago to penning a first novel in her 60s, she is somewhat the embodiment of the book’s protagonist, Darragh O’Grady.

County Times: Kathy Biggs with her debut novel, The Luck

Kathy Biggs with her debut novel, The Luck

Kathy, a Yorkshire native who has called Mid Wales home for nearly 40 years, having moved from Bradford to Glascwm in 1985, revealed that she’d never harboured any dreams of writing, so it wasn’t as if redundancy was a blessing in disguise.

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After closing the Age Concern chapter of her life, Kathy wondered what was next.

County Times: Kathy Biggs with her debut novel, The Luck

Kathy Biggs with her debut novel, The Luck

She enrolled on a creative writing course, and describes that as the lightbulb moment. “After half an hour I was hooked and never looked back,” said Kathy, who signed up for an eight-week course put on by Aberystwyth University and hosted at the Wyeside Arts Centre in Builth Wells.

“After being made redundant I was looking for what to do next. The job was information overload, and I thought that next, I wanted to do something where I get something out of it.

“I had never thought of writing before, but then I enrolled on that first course and it was like a light switch going on.

“Over the next few years I did more courses and entered a few competitions. I had some positive results so I decided to try a novel.

County Times: Kathy Biggs, pictured with Llanwrtyd mayor Jim Davies, at the book's launch event in October

“I’d done these courses for around 18 months before I started writing The Luck. The plot for it came from a piece of homework we were set as part of a writing group I was with.

“I did a piece of writing and I carried on with it. I took it on and into a short story, then it started getting towards the length of a novella and the story just kept coming. It was a story I really enjoyed writing.”

The Luck is set in 1930s rural America. O’Grady has a dream of buying a plane and becoming a crop duster. One day, while flying off course, he spots from his cockpit an abandoned farmhouse below and is intrigued, so he buys it, even though it’s rumoured to have a tragic past. He sets up home, marries indomitable but damaged Beattie Darling, and has a family.

County Times: Kathy Biggs has published debut novel, The Luck, at 64

Kathy Biggs has published debut novel, The Luck, at 64

“His whole aim is to live a good life and be a good man, and he hopes this tragic past doesn’t catch up with him, but it doesn’t turn out that way,” said Kathy, who describes the book as being about family, relationships and the ups and downs of life.

“The idea came from when I was younger. I was a student nurse and me and some friends went to America for a month.

“We crossed the country by Greyhound bus, from New York to San Francisco and back, a total of 3,000 miles. The size of America really affected me.

“I’m from Yorkshire and thought that was big but America blew my mind. I think it must have worked its way into me because when I started writing the novel it’s automatically where I set it. I felt it needed the endlessness of America.”

The Luck has been receiving good reviews and is selling well since being published on October 6 by Aberystwyth-based Honno – which concentrates solely on publishing writing by the women of Wales.

Kathy sent her labour of love off hopefully in 2021 to publishers and received a reply back from Honno, who offered her a contract. A special local book launch was held in Llanwrtyd, where Kathy and her family moved to in 1999. The event was held at the Victoria Hall on October 21, with mayor Jim Davies opening the evening.

“I had this whole career and then became published at 64,” said Kathy, who turned 65 this month.

“It was a question I got asked in the interview with the publisher at the event in Llanwrtyd, what advice would I give to someone.

“It’s all part of the story, you’re not too old to do something completely different.”

Honno have already accepted Kathy’s second novel, based in a scrapyard in Swansea, and that is slated to come out in June next year.