«Мой возраст — мои правила» — My Age, My Rules

If we do not die young, we will grow old. I try this statement on people I know and hear: “We might not live that long”, “We are still doing all right”, or “That is ages away!” We avoid thinking about old age, and it catches us unprepared. Yet for the first time in history, most people alive today have a good chance of reaching their seventies or eighties. Fear of ageing is fear of the unknown: learning a little more about it can make it less frightening.

That is why I examine fears one by one and name them plainly: pain, loss of sight and hearing, dementia, dependence on strangers, loneliness and death. Not to frighten you, but because uncertainty is more frightening than specifics. I promise neither eternal youth nor wise enlightenment. Old age is not necessarily life's best stage, but neither must it be the worst. It is simply a part of life like any other. The most useful thing we can do is become familiar with it before we have to live there.

• Ten rules for everyday ageing, each explored in detail
• A section for each fear: pain, sight and hearing, dementia, dependence on others, loneliness and death
• Over sixty first-person accounts from real people aged 27 to a hundred, with their names and ages
• Useful before old age: half the book explores what to do now