Rachel McAlpine’s work
What’s on this website? Far too much. It’s time to rationalise and tidy up and cull my digital life, including this website. I’ll post links here to pieces that are still relevant. This short page will grow longer, because I’ll start small, taking baby steps. I’m still mulling over the same question: where to focus my energies as the world changes and I’m no longer a lone voice in a new field. Actually, that’s a pretty fun way to live, for me.
- My motto: Don’t peak too soon.
- My other motto: Very very good is good enough.
ABOUT ME
Writers are constantly updating our bios and photos. I’ve got enough ‘portraits’ of myself on my computer for a supermodel. One day I’ll write a 2026 bio. Meantime…
CURRENT WORK
YeaY! Your Easy Aging Year starts here
Free downloads of a unique workbook to raise your courage and competence for your future old age. If it’s coming anyway, best take the initiative, like I did when I was 75. The rewards are still with me 10 years later, and what’s more, it was fun!
Podcast: Learning How To Be Old
Not a to-do list. Just friendly chats about any and every aspect of daily life that change as you grow older. Conversation, gardening, dancing, singing, driving, looking in the mirror, clothes, diaries, love, falling — everything is different, one way or another. And it’s not all bad, by any means: age brings surprising delights as well as challenges. Follow my podcast and you’ll always have a friend in your pocket (if your phone is in your pocket). My guests are terrific and sometimes they host me. On my website and the usual podcast places.
Still Not Dead: on show with the Londons Duo
Sometimes I’m on stage, usually giving a poetry performance or a conference presentation. Somehow these have slipped their moorings and this year I’ll be in two performances of Still Not Dead. Andrew and Kirsten London hold the show together, performing Andrew’s brilliant songs. Adored for his satirical wit, Andrew’s music can also be serious or poignant and it all comes from a warm heart. I try to keep up with Andrew and Kirsten, offering bite-sized poems and stories.
Wellington
- 5.30 pm, 15 August 2026
- The Undercurrent, 118 Tory Street, Wellington, a bookshop loaded with atmosphere and about (I’m guessing) 35 seats.
Feilding (Yes! Glorious Feilding!)
- 3 pm, Sunday 30 August
- Feilding Little Theatre, PO Box 348, Feilding – 06 323 5051
Substack: Now
My Substack publication is called Now. I’ve published a few articles there but I’m thinking hard about what to focus on. When I started writing about the weirdness of old age ten years ago, I felt like a lone voice challenging ageism and stereotypes. Today the world has thousands of older people writing about their own aging experience, as well as thousands telling of relevant research and theories and statistics and policies. Lately, a still small voice is whispering in my ear: Just post poems and scribbly drawings… We shall see
EARLIER WORK
I can barely remember writing some of this, but here goes.
Ursula, feline influencer and art appreciator
Ursula’s interest in influencing you, let alone earning me some dosh, waned rapidly after Covid. You be the judge. For the record, she is still with me, turning 11 on 24 September. She is a cat. She has a ridiculous grandiose official name but we call her Ursula, the little bear. I know, nominal infantalisation and deflation. Sorry not sorry.
Poems in the Wild
A sometimes charming collection of poems, some very old (like the excoriating feminist Sheila poems), others small and random. The website is Aybrow.com. Will it always exist? No idea. I like the photos! My poems now are to be found on scraps of paper, hundreds of notebooks, SubStack and my WordPress blog. And of course in books, most recently How To Be Old — a best seller in New Zealand!
The 90 Plus: group theatre against ageism
These pages relate to my play, The Secret Lives of Extremely Old People, which played four sold-out seasons at three theatres in 2023-2025. Our group now meets informally, so this is historic material.