Clodagh Finn: Lessons in ageing from a woman who began her life’s work at 72

Mary Delany was on a creative journey of imagining throughout her 70s and early 80s, two decades that are almost excised from view

Mary Delany created exquisite paper 'mosaiks' (collages), many of which are now in the British Museum. Picture: Getty Images

Mary Delany was in her 70s when she invented a new art form simply by noticing the similarity between a piece of red paper and a petal that had fallen from a geranium plant.