Patrick Skene-Catling

How to get old without getting boring

Reading keeps you young, suggests Penelope Lively in Ammonites & Leaping Fish

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When one notices the first symptoms of senile dementia (forgetting names, trying to remember the purpose of moving from one room to another, and so on), books can be wonderfully helpful. At the age of 80, Penelope Lively, the prolific, generally esteemed, novelist, has written an encouraging guidebook for the ageing:

For me, reading is the palliative, the daily fix.

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