{"id":53437,"date":"2025-08-08T20:09:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T20:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/53437\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T20:09:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T20:09:14","slug":"books-to-turn-to-when-you-feel-your-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/53437\/","title":{"rendered":"Books to turn to… When you feel your age"},"content":{"rendered":"

It strikes you at random, the loss of youth. And I don\u2019t mean those glimpses through shop windows of some portly, wild-haired shopper who turns out to be your own reflection \u2013 no, I\u2019m talking about the thunderbolts of violent existential crisis.<\/p>\n

Like the one that knocked me for six when watching the TV adaptation of Sally Rooney\u2019s Normal People. Connell was visiting Marianne at her holiday villa in Italy and the ravishing early-20s twosome were clattering about happily on their bikes when I was struck by a pain so profound I would have sunk to my knees had I not been lying on the sofa tucked under a throw.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll never freewheel like that again, I thought. At least not without needing to get off constantly to adjust the saddle or search for a loo. The best remedy for mourning youth is your bookshelf, specifically classic gems with a fierce female protagonist of a certain age.<\/p>\n

Related Story<\/p>\n

The frontrunner for me is Winifred Watson\u2019s Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day. When Guinevere Pettigrew, late 40s and near-destitute, stumbles by chance into the realm of the glamorous young Delysia, she\u2019s unexpectedly afforded the opportunity to deploy the wisdom of her greater years. Before the day is out, she\u2019s enjoying both a style makeover and a longed-for romance \u2013 pure bliss for both her and us.<\/p>\n

AUDIBLE Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson<\/p>\n

\"Miss<\/a><\/p>\n

For more modern midlife heroines, look no further than your Anne Tyler collection, especially her Pulitzer-winning Breathing Lessons, in which well-meaning meddler Maggie Moran takes a road trip with her husband and finds herself on a personal journey to forgiveness, acceptance and hope. This novel is such a tonic for weary female souls it should be available at the chemist\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Vintage Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler<\/p>\n

\"Breathing<\/a><\/p>\n

Ready for a vixen? Writing A Neighbour\u2019s Guide To Murder, I became aware of Notes On A Scandal vibes, of echoes of Zo\u00eb Heller\u2019s deliciously manipulative sixtysomething narrator, Barbara Covett, in my 70-year-old Gwen. Recognising in the mistakes of her younger, more glamorous colleague Sheba an opportunity to influence events \u2013 perhaps even profit from them \u2013 Barbara proceeds to wreak merry hell in her community. Hard to read at times, but there\u2019s something exhilarating, even redemptive, about her refusal to be sidelined by a society that dismisses older women wholesale.<\/p>\n

Penguin Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller<\/p>\n

\"Notes<\/a><\/p>\n

If in doubt, there\u2019s always Agatha Christie\u2019s Jane Marple. I thought of her last week when in my local posh bakery. An entitled millennial male in Lycra shouldered past me, behaving as if I didn\u2019t exist, before flirting with the young female barista. “I\u2019m an ordinary, rather scatty old lady,” Jane muses in The Murder At The Vicarage, her debut airing and my favourite. “And that of course is very good camouflage. You see, we\u2019re only disguised as being past our best; inside, the flame burns as bright as ever.”<\/p>\n

HarperCollins Publishers The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

My last recommendation is a youthquake classic that inspires joie de vivre \u2013 The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy, given to me by my first boss when I was in my 20s and she her 40s (we\u2019re still friends 35 years later). Heroine Sally Jay Gorce is a young graduate in 1950s Paris, whirling down boulevards and surrendering to seductions without a thought for the adult compromises that lie beyond. \u2018The world is wide, wide, wide,\u2019 she declares, \u2018and I am young, young, young, and we\u2019re all going to live forever!\u2019 Well, you are, Sally Jay, I\u2019m sure of it. <\/p>\n

Virago The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy <\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

A Neighbour\u2019s Guide To Murder (HarperCollins) by Louise Candlish is out now<\/p>\n

A Neighbour’s Guide To Murder by Louise Candlish<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>Related Story
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