Autobiographical accounts of ageing. Any suggestions welcome....

Hugh

Hugh

Well-Known Member
Supporter
Joined
Mar 27, 2016
Messages
2,302
I really like autobiographical accounts of peoples' experience and it occurs to me that I've never read any about the ageing process. I'm not talking novels here or people writing of life threatening illnesses relatively early in life, or misery lit, and definitely not the self-help industry. I'm thinking of peoples' own experience of life into the seventies and eighties and their perception of what this is like, gradual loss of capacity and all. I just finished Peter Coyote's second volume of autobiography (written in his early 70s) and he touches on getting older there, and I realised this is a genre I've never read, but would like to read.

If anyone has any suggestions at all, I'll be delighted to look into them.
 
I've not read anything of hers, but I believe Diana Athill wrote several memoirs, at least one of which was to do with her ageing -- per Wikipedia "In 2008, she won the Costa Book Award for her memoir Somewhere Towards The End, a book about old age". Also, "Diana Athill, "'Getting things right': Recalling her life as one of the 20th century's most acclaimed editors, Diana Athill, who has just turned 90, was a pioneer of the confessional memoir. Her new book is about ageing". The Guardian, 5 January 2008."
 
Just to add I've heard some of Diana Athill's writing serialised on the radio, and it's great. Honest and insightful.
 
Laurie Lee's trilogy starting with Cider With Rosie, about being a young boy in a Somerset village amd finishing up in the Spanish Civil war. Luminous writing.
 
hitmouse said:
Laurie Lee's trilogy starting with Cider With Rosie, about being a young boy in a Somerset village amd finishing up in the Spanish Civil war. Luminous writing.
Click to expand...
Many thanks for the suggestion, but, please correct me if I'm wrong, I think these look back at his life when younger, rather than detailing the experience of old age. I'm looking for the personal experience of dealing with old age. It was a long time ago, but I loved "As I walked out...".
 
hitmouse said:
Laurie Lee's trilogy starting with Cider With Rosie, about being a young boy in a Somerset village amd finishing up in the Spanish Civil war. Luminous writing.
Click to expand...
However, I've ordered "A Moment of War" despite it probably being off piste as regards this particular search, because I've never read it, and I loved "As I Walked Out..." Many thanks. Somewhere in the recesses of my synapses I'd always wondered what happened next.
 
@Hugh you are correct, so apologies. It is about him growing (sequentially in the books) up rather than being old.
I would also recommend A Rose in Winter, where he returns to his old haunts in Spain with his wife, a number of years after the civil war.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread starter Similar threads Forum Replies Date
Extollager Miseries of School: An Ongoing Anthology of Accounts, True and Fictitious History 76
Brian G Turner How autobiographical is your writing? Writing Discussion 17
Extollager "Tolkien on Tolkien" Rare 1966 Diplomat Mag Autobiographical Article JRR Tolkien 6
allmywires Creating character/book related twitter accounts Publishing 29

Similar threads


Back
Top