Lion's Breakfast

Lion's Breakfast is a both a love story and a dystopian novel set in about 2050 AD. The elderly population has expanded to such a degree that society must look at new ways of looking after elderly people so that they no longer are a burden on the young tax-payer. In this new world, everyone over the age of 60 must live in a Twilight Zone -a ghetto where healthcare and money are in short supply, and there are extensive restrictions on relationships between the Old World and the Young World. It is age apartheid. On his 60th birthday, Tom Fleming, a former army surgeon, moves to a Twilight Zone. After a relatively sheltered live in the army, he is shocked to find out just how limited are the healthcare resources, and how all life-prolonging treatments are either forbidden or discouraged. As a privilege, he is able to find work in a hospital in the Young World so he has a reasonable income. However, he has to retrain as a psychiatrist as there is no requirement for his surgical expertise. In the course of his work as a psychiatrist, he comes across the sinister figure of John Legge, a former intelligence officer who involves him in some highly dubious experimental work on criminals, using a powerful new drug to modify criminal behavior. Tom has concerns when some of the criminals suffer serious side effects, but Legge will not allow him to withdraw from the trial. Outside work, Tom finds himself caring for Colonel Anderson, a former comrade who has grown frail and can no longer take care of himself. At the same time he falls in love with a young woman in the Young World and starts an illegal affair with her, which he must keep secret. As the weeks go by, problems arise. Anderson's health deteriorates and the Age Police find out about Tom's secret affair. Legge offers to help out, as he has considerable influence in the Young World; but only at a price. Tom has to look deep inside his soul and decide just how far he will go to hold on to both his love and his principles. This is a book about love, loyalty, ethics, crime and the inevitability of old age. It is about what happens when society turns its back on the elderly and leaves them to fend for themselves. This is a book about a future that is not as far away as we might like to imagine.