How to Age Disgracefully

De: Clare Pooley

Narrado por: Clare Corbett

Brought to you by Penguin.

When age makes you invisible, secrets are easier to hide

Lydia imagines her new job running a Senior Citizen's Social Club three afternoons a week will involve drinking tea while playing gentle games of cards, listening to The Beatles and reminiscing about food rationing and The Blitz.

She does not expect to find a failed actor addicted to shoplifting, a woman who's been hiding from a mysterious and very chequered past, and a prolific yarn-bomber. It turns out that their ideas about how to spend their afternoons are very different.

After a tragic accident means the council threatens to sell the community centre, the Social Club, aided by their friends in the nursery next door and a geriatric orphaned dog, set out to save it.

They might not be able to save the hall, but they might just save each other - if their pasts don't catch up with them first...

©2024 Clare Pooley (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Funny and Heartwarming

How to Age Disgracefully started a little slowly for me, but it picked up speed as it went along. I believe I would have felt more engaged earlier if the novel had a central main character to root for (Daphne!), but instead there is a full, flawed-but-entertaining ensemble of main characters. Eventually, I grew to love them all, but it took a while with so many story-lines.

Still, the overall story is sweet, the characters are unique, humorous, and fun, and by the time the novel ended I had a smile on my face and was hoping for a sequel. Ms. Pooley has a gift for creating heartwarming and funny characters that I think of fondly, long after I’ve finished reading her books. If you haven’t already read her first two novels,

Clare Corbett was wonderful with the delivery of the story