Growing Old Disgracefully

A Grand Old Time by Judy Leigh is a really fun contemporary novel that will have you in stitches. It debunks all the myths about seventy five year olds being ‘over the hill’. Life is for living, no matter how old you are.

The main theme is carpe diem – we are a long time dead – so seize the day and do something different. Begin to live again. Do not wait around for the future, grab the present with both hands and try something new.

Judy Leigh has created a marvellous lead character in the form of seventy five year old Evie. She is fun. She is mischievous. She is brave. She is not content to live out her days in an old people’s home that was “sucking the soul out of me.” Evie shows how to grow old disgracefully. Life is an adventure to be had.

There are two stories running parallel as the reader soon becomes acquainted with Evie’s son Brendan. The cruel irony is there is more life in Evie than in Brendan. His staid life contrasts sharply with her life that is lived in colour.

Life is what we make it. We can choose to live each day or we can wallow in despair. The choice is ours. It is never too late to begin again.

I loved A Grand Old Time. It was fun. I ‘lived’ the novel with Evie. She had an air of joie de vrie about her and was really fun to be around.

A pure escapist novel that I could not put down.

I received this book for free from Net Galley. A favourable review was not required and all views expressed are my own.

JULIA WILSON