Old Seems to be Other People

People assume that if you are female and over seventy you are oblivious to men’s good looks. No one would blink if a 99-year-old man wearing an oxygen mask mentioned a good-looking woman…’

Most of us would like to live to an old age, but few of us actually want to be old.

In this disarming and gently self-deprecating collection of vignettes about ageing, Lily Brett gives us snapshots of her everyday life in New York. After waving enthusiastically to a tall, grey-haired woman she has mistaken for her husband and avoiding a large dog that turns out to be a fire hydrant, Lily has to concede that her ophthalmologist is right: she does need cataract surgery. While at a café with her husband she’s transfixed by a speed-dating dinner in progress at the other end of the café. She moves closer and watches. The event manager tells her they also have speed-dating dinners for seniors. In the crowded Apple store, in Soho, two young Apple assistants decide it will take both of them to help her.

Sparkling with wit and wisdom, Old Seems to be Other People, Lily Brett’s unique take on getting older, is simultaneously hilarious, serious and utterly irresistible.

Lily Brett was born in Germany and came to Melbourne with her parents in 1948. She is one of Australia's most loved, prolific and successful authors. She has published six works of fiction, seven books of poetry, and three essay collections to much critical acclaim in Australia and around the world. Her novel Lola Bensky won France's Prix Medicis tranger in 2014. Lily Brett is married to the Australian painter David Rankin. They have three children and live in New York.

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