C'Est La Vie

It was the writer Hunter Davies, though he does not know it, who prompted me to write this book. He, like me, had

reached the ripe age of 80 and he wrote a long article, composed of 80 paragraphs, which appeared in the Sunday Times Magazine. The article listed the joys of being 80. I was inspired by much of what he wrote, such as his paragraph 40 which read: "I am still working at 80. You just stagger on, hoping to get away with it, writing this sort of stuff, for example .... "

It was a time when I had recently written My Speaking Journey of 30 years and also Those Trinity Years. Although writing books had not featured in my bucket list, an interest in scribbling had taken hold. I was flirting with the concept of memoirs, but I certainly had no interest in a full chronological biography. However, Hunter Davies's scheme of '80 items' made me think further.

The result is this compilation of 80 separate chats illustrating the fun and follies of my 80 years. I am pleased to share both my pleasures and my observations with you, and ask you to forgive the faults of memory and the occasional repetitions which are bound to have occurred.