Penelope Lively

Penelope Lively’s diary: My old-age MOT

Plus: The world in a doctor’s surgery, and Somerset’s last great floods

Author Dame Penelope Lively after receiving her Dame Commander medal from the Princess Royal Photo: Getty 
issue 22 February 2014

My surgery has been calling in all those over 75 for a special session with their doctor — a sort of old-age MOT. I came out of mine pretty well, I thought: I could remember the name of the Prime Minister, blood pressure excellent, spark plugs need cleaning, windscreen wipers ineffective, bodywork showing signs of wear. But not too bad for 80. Gerontologist Tom Kirkwood, in his book Time of Our Lives, gives a clinical but excellent and entirely comprehensible account of what we should expect, and what can and cannot be done about it. His study of a group in their mid-eighties found that not one had zero age-related disease, and most had four or five. We take our pick: hips, knees, macular degeneration and so forth. Friends and acquaintances of my age can serve up the full range, and I warm most to those who are making a good fist of it.

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