The Tick of Two Clocks

- Blurb -

Old age is no longer a blip in the calendar, just a few declining years before the end. Old age is now a major and important part of life: It should command as much thought - even anxiety - as teenagers give to exam results and young marrieds how many children to have . . . I am in my 80s and moving towards the end of my life. But in a more actual sense, I have moved from my dear home of 50 odd years into another . . . the home where I will be until the end. Writing here of how it has happened is in a sense a reconciliation with what cannot be avoided, but which can be confrontedWhen Joan Bakewell, Labour Peer, author and famous champion of the older people' s right to a good and fruitful life, decided that she could no longer remain in her old home, she had to confront what she calls ' the next segment of life. ' Disposing of things accumulated during a long life, saying goodbye to her home and the memories of more than fifty years, thinking about what is needed for downsizing - all suddenly became urgent and emotional tasks. And then there was managing family expectations. Some new projects such as planning the colours and layout of a new, smaller flat, were exciting and some things - the ridding herself of books, paintings, memento - took courage. So much of the world is on the move- voluntarily or not - and so many people are living to a great old age. In using the tale of her own life , Joan Bakewell tells us a story of our times and how she is learning to live to the sound and tune of The Tick of Two Clocks: the old and the new.