Age is no barrier to adventure – as Gurnard-based artist Miranda Amapola Symington continues to prove. Her experiences of life as a ‘Swinging Sixties’ photographic model and fashion designer, of setting out on an epicAtlantic sailing adventure and then of living close to Nature in a shepherd’s hut, would be plenty to pack into one lifetime for most people. But now, in her late 70s,Miranda is still relishing the thrill of a new challenge, having recently published her first book and launched into a new relationship.Now she is excitedly preparing for another spell of living on the waves – although aboard a barge, and on the somewhat less choppy waters of Bembridge Harbour.

She always considered herself a ‘maker rather than a writer’, but throughout her remarkably eventful life, people would frequently suggest that Miranda really ought to write a book. For years, she resisted, haunted partly by the classroom criticisms she experienced at the boarding school she attended from the age of seven.

But the act of finally writing it has proved truly cathartic. “I know that’s a cliché, but it’s true” she says.

All her life, people have remarked on Miranda’s courage and gung-ho attitude which, in the face of some interesting new challenge, would usually jump in with both feet and say “OK – let’s go for it”.

It wasn’t, however, until she took a step back to reflect, and began writing her autobiography that she was able to see and recognise her own daring and impulsive nature.

“When you are in the middle of things, just getting on with your life, you don’t tend to think about what you’re doing – but as I wrote the book and looked back, I found myself wondering how and why on earth I did some of what I did. How, for instance, did I manage to get any sleep when I was sailing out of sight of land for 27 days? I was genuinely curious at some of the things I had done”

Her friends and family were probably not that surprised, as Miranda was known for her spontaneity and impulsiveness. As one friend remarked “Whatever it is you are faced with, you just roll up your sleeves and get on with it!”

It was this spirit that led her to say an instant ‘yes’ to former husband John when he suggested sailing the Atlantic, and in her late 50s, to her partner Richard who wanted to buy a shepherd’s hut in Cornwall.

“I’ve always been quite child-like, I think it must be my rather childlike enthusiasm that allows me to dive into things very quickly”.

A free spirit

Life at boarding school only confirmed Miranda’s aversion to conventional learning by rote. She avoided academia, left school and indulged her creative free spirit through dressmaking and needlecraft, charging the princely sum of two guineas (just over two pounds) to make a skirt. On a personal level she was seeing a handsome young rugby player, Kendall Carey, and soon after her father’s sudden death, when she was only 20 and still in grief, they married. It was Kendall who suggested she might try modelling, and whilst the marriage did not last long, her modelling career took off.

At the time she was Miranda Carey, and was with an agency in London’s Brompton Road. She was the model for brands such as Aquascutum and Silhouette swimwear but the job that arguably brought the biggest profile was for lager brand Heineken, which resulted in an image of her on the hoardings of Piccadilly Circus – although minus her head. She got the job for her enviable 24-inch waistline, and presumes it was to promote the concept of a low-calorie lager

Oceans of adventure

Modelling is a notoriously short-lived career and just as Miranda was considering training as an occupational therapist, she met John Shuttleworth, the man she married in 1974 and whose dream was to build his own boat and cruise round the world. Her response was typical- “Why don’t we?”. Within two years, they had built and launched Sweet Painted Lady their much-loved 40-foot trimaran that would take them on their epic voyage across the Atlantic exploring the Caribbean, the Bahamas and the east coast of America. Throughout the journey, Miranda captured images in copious sketches and notes, which now feature in her biography as touching reflections on the experience.

The 1980s brought them to land on the Isle of Wight, and a little cottage in Gurnard, along with two year-old son Orion – later joined by brother Sky in 1985. Sweet Painted Lady had been sadly waved off by then, but the family car was always loaded up with watersports gear for their next expedition to one of the Island’s many beaches.

John continued working successfully as a boat designer while Miranda began training as an arts therapist. There came a dark period when their marriage failed after 20 years together, and whilst the parting was amicable, it led to a deep soul-searching.

As part of the healing process Miranda went on a retreat to Spain, and it was there that she literally ‘re-invented’ herself for a new phase of life – adopting the name Amapola (Spanish for ‘poppy’) and taking back her birth name, Symington.

It was this Miranda who, after eight years living alone and working at her art and craft – from paintings and collages to re-purposing “found objects” – found another love, and another adventure.

Richard was a widower who, it turned out, had a dream of living in a shepherd’s hut in Cornwall. Again it was a case of “why not?” and the couple threw themselves into the later-life experience. They committed to each other in a blessing ceremony at Bonchurch in 2006 and enjoyed their simple, back-to-nature life in Cornwall. Sadly it was short lived, as Rich died from leukaemia in 2017.

Art as therapy

Now, in what she describes in her book as her ‘twilight years’, grandmother of three Miranda continues to pursue her passion for art as well as the reminiscence work she has done in elder care homes around the Island.

This has involved encouraging older people to open up about themselves, talk about their lives and perhaps to re-discover long-forgotten passions, talents and friends.

One such resident told Miranda he used to play the violin but had forgotten how. She promptly brought one in to him and he was able to play it perfectly.

Ironically, Miranda has often found herself to be older than some of the residents she visited, and admits that she finds it sad to see how restricted and institutionalised some aged people’s lives can become. “Sometimes I would go home in tears.”

As well as talking therapy, she also encourages arts and crafts, and that has resulted in some beautiful, meaningful creations such as the patchwork squares depicting people’s memories. The ‘kit’ that she would take with her might be a basket full of random things to spark memory, including tactile and scented objects such as boot polish, pine cones, lavender, lemons and fresh bread.

“Smell is the most potent of our senses, the one that a baby first connects with” she says.

As for her own reminiscences, these were finally crystallised into an autobiography after she met the well-known writer Hunter Davies, who has a home on the Island.

After she called in at a book signing for his latest book – ironically enough titled “Love in Old Age” – they chatted and then became friends. It was Hunter who encouraged her to write, and during the process they became closer.

Now, as partners, they are keen to create a new chapter together, with Hunter preparing to move from his Island home in Ryde to a 110-foot Dutch barge in Bembridge Harbour this autumn.

“It’s completely mad” laughs Miranda. “Hunter is 88 and I am nearly 80 but we are ready for another adventure!”

“For our two year anniversary Hunter bought us both teeshirts emblazoned across the back with the word ‘crew’ ”. Mischievously, Miranda suggests that, given her sailing experience of six years afloat, she might just invest in a ‘Captain’ teeshirt instead!

When on land, they will flit between Hunter’s London home and Miranda’s on the Island.

“Who can knock the idea of a romantic adventure at my age?” she says. Who indeed.

One quote that has inspired Miranda for much of her life is from Goethe, a copy of which she found attached to a friend’s lavatory door on a rusty pin. It reads..

“Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now”

* Miranda’s memoirs, My Name is not Matilda, can be found locally at Medina Bookshop or online via Amazon.