It’s a familiar tale. Midway through life’s journey, Marcus Berkmann woke to find himself in a dark wood, where the right road was wholly lost and gone. Without a Virgil to guide him through the trials and torments of middle age, he composed a bestselling memoir based on his experiences, A Shed of One’s Own – not so much a divine comedy as a mildly amusing stocking-filler. In his latest book, Still a Bit of Snap in the Celery, he realises he has entered a new age category: the so-called ‘young-old’. It’s easy to picture the delight on the sleepy faces of many a grandparent this Christmas as they wake to discover young/old Father Marcus has visited again.
Beneath this seemingly amiable progress into that good night is an adolescent howl of ‘It’s so unfair’
As the success of films such as The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel suggests, there is now a whole sector of the entertainment industry monetising the onset of old age, perhaps because this generation of senior citizens will be the last to enjoy much disposable income, a societal shift of which the author is uncomfortably aware.
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