How to stay "in" in the media. Vivien Perkins offers an insider view. Most people will be delighted that Miriam O’Reilly has won her case for discrimination on grounds of age against the BBC. Nearly 40 years in the world of film and television leaves me in no doubt that ‘fitting in’ with the plans…
Older is in the eye of the beholder
Visiting contributor, Mike Paul, wonders exactly how old is "old" these days? Recently I went to see Alan Bennett’s play ”The Habit of Art“, the centrepiece of which is an imagined meeting between WH Auden and Benjamin Britten. At the time of the meeting Auden was in his early sixties and, if Bennett’s script is an…
Shades of black and white
Greyhares visitor, Mike Paul, argues in favour of a little more grey all round... It was Chou En-lai, the former Chinese premier who once said, on being asked his opinion of the effect of the French Revolution on subsequent history, “It is too soon to say.“ Now whether or not he was being genuinely profound…
Postcard from Norfolk
We live in strange times! I have been away from my London office for my daughter’s wedding and have been bemused by the news reaching me in the wilds of Norfolk. Scientists at the National Academy of Perverse Political Information (NAPPI for short) have been bewildered by the eruption of a yellow cloud of hot…
Postcard from Herefordshire
As greyhares, we like to celebrate getting older and to embrace the experience. However, we have received a postcard from a friend in Herefordshire, proposing an alternative approach. Our correspondent is too young to have any direct knowledge of the subject (her friends comment that she seems to get younger every year) and we can…
Now you see me, now you don’t
Annie Forsyth is a greyhare with grey hair. Annie considers the benefits or otherwise and concludes that visibility is in the eye of the beholder. Meanwhile, the greyhares editor uses a feeble excuse to feature grey-haired George Clooney on the site. I deliberately chose to let my hair grow grey and have never dyed it. I am…
Looking after mother
Just when one thinks life is free of dependents (children), aging parents suddenly need care. As my children became independent grown ups, my mother entered her second childhood. Her memory failed and she bravely kept up appearances by inventing what she could no longer remember. She invented a full time job, lovers, ‘new’ children and…