[John Jarrold]

In the UK, mainstream publishers are interested in their authors' ages - not in order to decide whether or not to publish them, but because the author is a part of publicizing the book, so if they are unusually young or old, that's a point to mention in the marketing and publicity material. If they are, say, between late 20s to early 50s, it isn't a specific point, in those terms. Christopher Paolini, the author of Eragon, was of interest to the book trade because he was very young. Others who have had their first novel published in their 60s have also had that pointed out in their publicity material. As a publisher, you use everything you can to make a novel interesting to the book chains and the punters when it is first published. But no one will take on a book specifically because the author is particularly young or old, in normal circumstances. A reader running into a bookshop on a wet morning to buy a paperback to read on the train or bus doesn't give a toss how old the author is: it's the writing and the story that matter. And word-of-mouth, of course.

I always asked agents about the author's age so I could mention it, if necessary, in the publishing meeting. And then, once I'd taken an author on, I met them ASAP to get a personal relationship going!