I’ve seen the future and it’s grey

When Benjamin Franklin remarked that all would live long, but none would be old, he could hardly have known how apt a description of today’s pensioners this would turn out to be. Fitter, healthier and more in tune with the times than any previous generation, they are determined not to allow their age to hold them back.

For the lucky few, including many baby-boomers, the first of whom are turning 60 this year, this means spending their golden years trekking in the Himalayas, dune-bashing in Dubai and generally showing us youngsters up as the lazy, unadventurous bunch we really are; for others it means something even more radical but usually less exotic — going back to work. Like Sydney Prior, a sprightly 91-year-old who still chooses to work five days a week at the B&Q garden centre in Wimbledon, south-west London — and who has long been a hit with shoppers — pensioners are increasingly refusing to retire.