Life Is For Living

Old Girls Behaving Badly by Kate Galley is an intriguing contemporary novel that kept me amused for a few hours.

The leading ladies are seventy one and eighty nine. They suddenly find that their twilight years are anything but calm and peaceful as the pair search for a stolen painting. Add a thirteen year old into the mix and the action ramps up as her enthusiasm knows no bounds.

We follow the characters to a family wedding in Norfolk where an uncle has thrown open his large, old house. There are elements of Agatha Christie as the family descends and three members are practicing their amateur sleuthing skills.

Society has written off ladies of a certain age, meaning they are practically invisible in their antics. Women over sixty are seen as beige, boring and staid – but they prove themselves to be far from this assumption. A sense of adventure is awakened in them as they prove that life is for living, whatever your age.