This is about the 'old old', not the physically lively sixty and
seventy-year-olds, but octogenarians having a voice. The eighties are
when it all begins to crumble. This book gives the young and middle-aged
insights into the world of the elderly. It deals with frailty, loss,
loneliness and death, but it is far from being a gloomy book: Hansen is
a literary man and he uses extracts from novels and poems to help in
exploring growing old. He balances lightness and seriousness and this
book will have an acute relevance for its older readers.