Counting fewer and fewer blessings

One of these anthologies (Late Youth) is small and sprightly, with a pretty, jaunty cover depicting one cheery old person cavorting on a pony and a second catching a fish. The other (The Long History) is large and substantial and uses a detail from an 18th- century self-portrait by Jean Etienne Liotard on its glossy, coffee-table- worthy jacket: the painter, gaptoothed, with straggling grey hair and a maniacal grin on his wrinked face points mockingly at his canvas with a skinny finger. The former collection is light, gossipy, upbeat, based on a well-heeled, well-connected circle of friends and relations mostly aged between 60 and 80. The latter is solemnly academic and surveys the aging process from the ancient world to the present. Both try, with mixed success, to sound an encouraging note.

Susanna Johnston, whose brother, Alexander Chancellor, is a former editor of this magazine, has evidently put the hard word on her family and friends in support of a good cause — this book aims to raise money for the Publishers’ Benevolent Society.