C'est la vie

<p>It was the writer Hunter Davies though he does not know it who prompted me to write this book. He like me had<br />reached the ripe age of 80 and he wrote a long article composed of 80 paragraphs which appeared in the <em>Sunday Times Magazine</em>. The article listed the joys of being 80. I was inspired by much of what he wrote such as his paragraph 40 which read: “I am still working at 80. You just stagger on hoping to get away with it writing this sort of stuff for example …. ”</p><p>It was a time when I had recently written<em> My Speaking Journey</em> of 30 years and also <em>Those Trinity Years</em>. Although writing books had not featured in my bucket list an interest in scribbling had taken hold. I was flirting with the concept of memoirs but I certainly had no interest in a full chronological biography. However Hunter Davies’s scheme of ‘80 items’ made me think further.</p><p>The result is this compilation of 80 separate chats illustrating the fun and follies of my 80 years. I am pleased to share both my pleasures and my observations with you and ask you to forgive the faults of memory and the occasional repetitions which are bound to have occurred.</p>