It’s been a long time since I bought some forks – now I think my rigid Mary needs some front suspension to keep my wrists from breaking.
All the sensibly priced 29″ forks seem to have tapered headtubes. Will a tapered headset fit my 5-year old 1 1/8 headtube, or do I need to go for normal headset / non-tapered forks?

If it is a standard head tube that takes a standard 11/8 external cup headset then there is no way to fit a tapered fork.

If the head tube is larger and the curent headset bearings sit internally to the head tube ( this type I headset has a number of different names, 44mm, zerostack, internal) then there is a possibility that you could get a tapered fork to fit with the correct lower cup.

Pop up a pic and we can say aye or no for sure.

That’s all the info I need, thanks. it’s taking a standard 1 1/8 headset.
In that case I’ll look for a normal fork. Shame.