About Time
Growing Old Disgracefully
Book
Hardback
272 pages
978-0-7195-6976-0 (ISBN)
Description
Something in our world is changing. In ten years time 60% of us will be over 55. The retirement age is likely to move up to 70; modern medicine ensures that most of us will live well in to our 80s and most of us will choose to do some work, paid or voluntary, while we are still physically able. Yet older people have, as yet, no role in modern society. Old age is regarded as an invonvenience, something to be shunned and set apart from our daily lives. In this frank, often funny and always compelling disquisition on ageing, Irma Kurtz sets out to chart the territory through her own and others' experiences. Along the way she meets a diverse group of people whose insights into their own lives have much to offer a younger generation - from a 90-year-old weekly columnist and a vicar still working in his mid-70s to The Good Granny Guide's Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall and 'London's Rudest Landlord', Normal Balon of the celebrated Coach and Horses. Kurtz is a fearless investigator of the art of growing old - its pleasures and its griefs - carrying with her the only tool that sharpens with age: lifelong curiosity.
Reviews / Votes
'Irma Kurtz, a veteran journalist, writer and London resident since 1970, is not going gently into that good night of the Third Age ... she tells not only her own story but has also drafted the likes of super-granny Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall, the mouthy publican Norman Balon ... to say what, besides cheerfulness and bloody-mindedness, keeps them going. Excelsior!' -- Iain Finlayson, The Times 'This is by no means a mean-spirited rant -- it's a clever deconstruction of everything that has mattered to her and to most of us -- friendship, family, the struggle to improve, to look good, be well liked -- seen from her feisty, hard-fought outpost' -- Kerry Fowler, Good Housekeeping 'She successfully demolishes common notions of an enfeebled generation, while also celebrating the easily recognisable benefits: grandchildren, cruises, lifelong friendships ... a cheerful and animated guide to what the French elegantly term "the third age"' -- Time Out 'Irma Kurtz is thoughtful and funny' -- Choice Magazine 'Witty and compassionate look at aging' -- Bookseller 'Feisty OAP Irma Kurtz whizzes here and there taking a wry and witty squint at the art of growing old ... this is a wonderfully life-enhancing book, packed with optimism and humour' -- Unite MagazineMore details
Person
Irma Kurtz was born inNew Jersey and grew up inNew York. After graduating in English Literature from Barnard College, Columbia University in 1956, she moved to Europe, first to Paris and then to London where, in 1970, she joined the brand new Cosmopolitan as its first Agony Aunt. Over her years inLondon, Irma Kurtz has contributed to virtually every national paper and is a frequent broadcaster on radio and TV. Recently she moved to Bloomsbury after twenty years in Soho,London, and describes herself as a 'last-time buyer'. She also keeps a small hiding-place in an unfashionable region of northernFrance. The mother of a son, Irma Kurtz became a grandmother in March 2005.