new business<\/a>, in Watford, Hertfordshire, where she specialises in post-menopausal women, and mother-and-daughter sessions.<\/p>\nThis is Walker\u2019s fourth career, she says; they have all come about by accident, life having \u201cmoved through chance events\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u2018I never regret anything\u2019 \u2026 Walker with a client. Photograph: Linda Nylind\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
She grew up in an Orthodox Jewish family in north London, and \u201crebelled\u201d by rejecting religion. She married a doctor straight after university, and started as a journalist on a local paper in Nottingham, where she often covered health and medicine. She ended up as health and beauty editor on Living magazine, via stints as health correspondent for the Daily Mail and Sunday Telegraph.<\/p>\n
But she had severe preeclampsia in her first pregnancy, and her very premature baby didn\u2019t survive. She was helped through subsequent pregnancies by a doctor with whom she co-authored a book on preeclampsia, and in 1992 they co-founded the charity Action on Preeclampsia.<\/p>\n
In a way, she says, the charity and book are lasting memorials to the son she lost. Walker has two adult children with her second husband.<\/p>\n
After nearly a decade running the charity, she handed over to someone with greater fundraising experience. Next came 15 years in communications skills training \u2013 the result of a chance conversation at a dinner party.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a philosophy that I never regret anything,\u201d Walker says. \u201cI just say: OK, I\u2019ve made the decision. Let\u2019s plough ahead. Let\u2019s not think about what I might have done instead or maybe it was a mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n
But lately she had begun to feel restless. The communications training work was declining, and she had no wish to slow down. \u201cI love work,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m 72 and way beyond retirement age, but I really don\u2019t want to retire because I can\u2019t think of anything that I particularly want to do that I can\u2019t already do in my spare time. I want my time to be filled. I feel like I\u2019ve got as much energy as I had when I was in my 20s or 30s.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Suddenly I feel happier in my own skin\u2019 \u2026 Isabel Walker. Photograph: Linda Nylind\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
Working with colour has already proved transformative. People are not always the season they thought. \u201cThe drapes tell the story, and they don\u2019t lie,\u201d Walker says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an analytical process. It\u2019s about clothes and colour. But it\u2019s also about people. People are endlessly interesting \u2026 It gives me a huge kick. I can see the difference it makes to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Walker herself learned that she was an autumn, and not the winter she had been advised when she\u2019d written about colour analysis in the 1980s.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is a very important part of my identity now. I started wearing softer colours. Got rid of all my black. I think that people will now notice me rather than think: \u2018Oh, gosh, that\u2019s a bright dress she\u2019s wearing.\u2019 Suddenly I feel happier in my own skin.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other lifestyle changes have followed. \u201cI\u2019m not going to buy very much, but I\u2019m going to buy intentionally, sustainably, and be prepared to wear whatever I buy a lot.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the future for me,\u201d she says. Though she isn\u2019t ruling out a fifth career. \u201cWho\u2019s to say there isn\u2019t going to be another turning point and another opportunity that I\u2019ll just say yes to?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Isabel Walker was taking her adult daughter out for her 36th birthday. She had wanted to do \u201csomething…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":936635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[77,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-936634","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116515170218820037","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=936634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/936635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=936634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=936634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=936634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}