In Praise of Ageing (Patricia Edgar, Text, October)

This challenging book has two sections. The first is a summary and critique of public and private attitudes and policies towards older Australians; the second is a series of short biographies of people known to the author who have led varied and productive lives well into what is usually defined as ‘old age’. Patricia Edgar advocates using the term ‘active second half’, making a good case for her views. While sympathetic to her views, being in the age group she is crusading for, I could not help thinking of contemporaries and their relatives who are really part of the problem, not the solution. The author’s examples are all vigorous, self-motivated people who have achieved much and whose drive, intellect and curiosity are undiminished. They all deserve the best quality of life that can be provided. Nowhere did I see my own (late) mother, for example—withdrawn, cantankerous, alienating her friends, refusing to cooperate with her doctor and physiotherapist, and slowly declining. The reality is that there are many thousands of very mature people like my mother and thousands more like Edgar’s examples. One can only hope that the more flexible approaches advocated by this author will be studied and adopted.

Max Oliver is a septuagenarian Sydney bookseller