16

It was never stated explicitly in the book.

Because of the natural attraction between Anathema and Newt, I would assume she is in her early or mid 20s--same as Newt.

Simple enough, right?

Here is the cincher: Adam Young, when he first meets Anathema outside of her home in Jasmine Cottage, he makes a comment about her being old. Given that kids can exaggerate (and the Them are no exception) and that anyone older than 16 might as well be ancient to them, I feel he wouldn't have made a comment unless she was a little bit up there in the numbers age-wise.

While researching this question, I found this in the Wiki:

Anathema is a self-sufficient young woman with a Ph.D. degree.

I don't recall that being mentioned in Good Omens (I may have overlooked it) but that would stand to substantiate the claim that she is older.

Is there any information that is available that might be able to shine some light on this?

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    I don't know much about the book, so I could be totally wrong, but having a PhD doesn't necessarily make someone older than mid-twenties. Some people get degrees early. I know a twenty-year old with a master's degree, for example.
    – Adamant
    Commented Jul 28, 2016 at 4:02

1 Answer 1

26

The apocalypse (doesn't) take place eleven years after Anathema's eighth birthday. That makes her 19 years of age through the entire events of Good Omens.

She was too young and too self-centered at this point to attach any importance to the fact that there was no mention made of her children, or indeed, any events in her future further away than eleven years' time. When you're eight and a half, eleven years is a lifetime, and of course, if you believed The Book, it would be.)

The fact that she has a doctorate is unusual (given her young age) but not beyond the realms of reality, especially given the advantage of having psychic powers.

She looked at Newt's blank expression.

"I did my Ph.D. on them," she said. "The people who invented things so simple and universally useful that everyone forgot that they'd ever actually needed to be invented. Sugar?"


For the record, Newton Pulsifer was 23 (or possibly 24) years of age. We can ascertain this from the chapter title

11 years ago

and this passage

Newton Pulsifer was twelve, and thin, and bespectacled, and he should have been in bed hours ago.

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