Carole Blake - Late Youth: An Anthology Celebrating the Joys of Being Over Fifty

There Are Advantages by Maureen Cleave was adapted from the article Ancient and Modern, which first appeared in the Telegraph Magazine 17 February 2000.

Sexagenarian Is Such A Beautiful Word It Comes After Sex In The Dictionary by Jilly Cooper was adapted from an article that first appeared in the Weekend Mail in February 1997.

The Stage In Life by Deborah Devonshire is taken from Counting my Chickens, published in 2001 by Long Barn Books.

A Classic Slipstream Situation by Elizabeth Jane Howard is from her book Slipstream, published in 2002 by Macmillan.

Excerpt from The Time Diaries Of Julian Fane is reproduced by kind permission of the Book Guild Ltd.

A BIG thank you to Arcadia for donating part of the profits from this book to the Book Trade Benevolent Society: the book trade charity. The BTBS and I are proud to be part of this inspirational volume, celebrating the joys of being over fifty.

The BTBS is actually even more mature than that; were more than one hundred and fifty and proud of it. Proud of being the only welfare charity working within the British book trade and perhaps in the world.

Publishing is a very sociable business, but its one that now works within an unforgiving marketplace and a very harsh working environment. Companies large and small (publishers, booksellers, wholesalers, agencies) sometimes shed staff, and their pension schemes often fail to provide the expected cushion against redundancy. In a trade with a shrinking workforce, it can be daunting to try to restart a career. The BTBS can help in a number of ways.

We run a help-line to provide confidential information on any trade-related issue: redundancy, retraining, pensions shortfall. The Retreat in Kings Langley, Hertfordshire, provides subsidized housing in an attractive garden environment to people, mostly over fifty but not necessarily so, who want to live in a community of book-loving people.

We have a grants programme that can react quickly to urgent need, to carers or those with health or disability problems, as well as giving assistance with financial difficulties, essential travel costs, computers even carpets and domestic equipment. We can provide one-off or regular grants and are very proud of the fact that we have never refused a legitimate request, whatever the state of our cash flow at the time.

Were proud to help so many people who might otherwise have nowhere else to turn, proud of running The Retreat and proud to be able to provide so many opportunities for people in publishing to fundraise in a way that is fun too.

I think we could a coin a word: funraise. Take a look at our website to see pictures from The Walkies: our summer walk around London, which sees five or six hundred members of the book trade, many of them dressed on a theme taken from books or authors, lurch from bookshop to publishing house, sponsored for every step and drink on the way. It can be highly alarming for civilians caught in the path of our charity walk!

We hold sales of donated books, we organize London Marathon places for people willing to raise sponsorship by running for us; we raise money from people who bet on the length of speeches at trade conferences. And a lot of people who should know better put on a cabaret every few years making fun of the book trade and its personalities. All the proceeds go to the BTBS, and those of us who have been in it spend a lot of time afterwards trying to live it down. No plan is too big or too silly if we think we can raise funds for the charity.

We receive very little regular financial support from the big corporations, so initiatives from projects like this are a real bonus.

Personally, I approve wholeheartedly of what this book celebrates. Im very post-fifty, and my life took a definite upturn as I was reaching the big five-oh. I havent regretted a single moment since. Life as a grown-up is so much more fun than being young and anxious!

Carole Blake

Chairman of the Book Trade Benevolent Society

S USANNA J OHNSTON

M OST of us have a deep-rooted fear of extinction, no matter what the circumstances or even how old we may be. A frail gentleman said not long ago: Nobody wants to live to be ninety unless theyre eighty-nine . He then mentioned that he was eighty-nine.

I know one thing. I am not as old as I feel. Im infinitely older. Through good fortune, escapism, mytho-mania or what you will, I am blessed with the assumption that everything is temporary. Wrinkles will vanish, stiffness will evaporate, and memory will return. All this discomfort and misery constitutes no more than a bad patch: to do with the weather, maybe. It could fit in with my mania for throwing things away prematurely. Im crazy about it: three-quarter squeezed toothpaste tubes, half-empty date packets, slivers of soap, or what you will. It offers a chance for a fresh purchase and a new start friskier than coming to the end of things. I have only recently discovered that I share this passion with many older people. My brother John tells me that he will merrily gulp down half a bottle of vodka in order to throw away the empty.