Writing Well Into Old Age
I'm fascinated by the subject of ageing and creativity. This page will contain links to articles and other material on writers and artists who have practised their craft well into old age. I'm also interested in new writers who begin their writing career past the age of fifty. I particularly want to look at the future of ageing and how writers entering the new gerontocracy see the years ahead of them.
We all age. But ageing in the 21st century will be unlike anything that has been experienced before. We are living in the century in which for the first time a human being could be engineered to live to a thousand years, when most of us in the so-called developed world can expect to live to a hundred without the aid of genetic transplants; when the number of people with dementia will grow, and when we will probably have to be cared for by our children, themselves in their sixties and seventies.
What are the creative responses to the experience of ageing and to these unique phenomena by writers about to enter the new gerontocracy, as well as those who have gone before?
Over the next few months this page will feature a range of articles, reviews and links. Come with me on a journey as I try to explore the future of writing well into old age.
We all age. But ageing in the 21st century will be unlike anything that has been experienced before. We are living in the century in which for the first time a human being could be engineered to live to a thousand years, when most of us in the so-called developed world can expect to live to a hundred without the aid of genetic transplants; when the number of people with dementia will grow, and when we will probably have to be cared for by our children, themselves in their sixties and seventies.
What are the creative responses to the experience of ageing and to these unique phenomena by writers about to enter the new gerontocracy, as well as those who have gone before?
Over the next few months this page will feature a range of articles, reviews and links. Come with me on a journey as I try to explore the future of writing well into old age.