For all ages

Nicci: Today I was signing one of our books for a young woman, who asked me to dedicate it not to her, but to her grandmother's boyfriend. At which point I had to lay down my pen and find out more. It turns out that they have only recently met. They are in their late seventies, in love and very happy. It reminded me of a time when Sean and I were at a party and the host's mother arrived. She was in her late eighties, even early nineties, and was accompanied by her new partner, who was the same age, and whom she had known when they were both young and had re-met a few months previously. There is something particularly optimistic about people falling in love towards the end of their lives - and it reminds us what we all too often forget: that you can be old and grey, have failing eyesight or find it hard to hear - but inside, you're the same as you ever were. Romantic, ambitious, needy, urgent, buoyant, full of fresh affections and desires.



PS. A few minutes ago, very casually and matter-of-factly as if it was no big deal, Sean said to me: 'I think that it's about a seventy-five per cent possibility that in 200 years, mankind won't exist.' Then picked up his book again.