“When I was in the doldrums it was my amazing network that got me through. I wanted to start Noon so that every woman who finds herself in that dark space has a community to help her re-find the sunny uplands.”
Eleanor Mills was a high-achieving journalist with a trail-blazing career, initially at The Daily Telegraph and then at The Sunday Times for 23 years, where she moved her way up from youngest ever features editor to magazine editor and editorial director. That changed in 2020 with the recruitment of a new editor for the newspaper. Suddenly she was out of work. She felt all at sea, rudderless, missing the work direction and drive that she had always thrived on, also dealing with having just turned 50, and the reality that her two children were independent and about to leave home.
Eleanor spoke at the Gainsborough Bath Spa in January as the hotel’s first ‘Phenomenal Women’ speaker in 2025. The audience followed her captivating tale, engrossed by the story of how her whole world stopped turning, which culminated one day sitting on a park bench, drinking Pimms out of a can with a friend. “Somehow I’d arrived in this dark, unfamiliar place where all the things that buoyed me up in the past had gone. I didn’t recognise – and didn’t like – this new pathetic version of myself.”
That conversation and her friend’s advice – “Change is difficult, but you’ll be alright.” – helped Eleanor turn her life around. With the support of her family and friends network she tuned into a new pace, spent rewarding time with her family and undertook nourishing activities, like cooking and reading poetry, meditation, listening to the birds in the garden, all things that her previously hectic life had not made room for.
Using her experience and the revelations it brought, Eleanor decided to launch Noon, which was born out of her desire to help women find a new path through midlife and beyond, to change the narrative. Adopting the term ‘Queenager’, she started a series of podcasts where she speaks to other distinguished Queenagers, exploring everything from AI to why women over 45 are being purged from the workforce. The confident belief is that that women of a certain age can be supported to find another version of themselves and rediscover their right to fun and pleasure. “You are never too old and it is never too late.”
The next Phenomenal Women talk at the Gainsborough Bath Spa is with TV and radio journalist, business leader and communications expert Christine McGourty on Thursday 6 March.
Book for Phenomenal Women: Christine McGourty here
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