The Middlepause

In a society obsessed with living longer and looking younger, what does middle age mean today?

Spurred by her own brutal propulsion into menopause, Marina Benjamin’s clear-eyed account of our middle years takes inspiration from literature and philosophy to weigh the challenges and opportunities of mid-life. It offers an inspired and expanded vision of how to be middle-aged happily and harmoniously, without sentiment or delusion.

‘Lucid and sophisticated … A restrained but wonderful guide to the convulsive changes of 50 and over … This is a book that yields valuable insights on almost every page.’

-- Melissa Benn The Guardian

‘A 21st-century meditation on middle age … The Middlepause is erudite, with a lengthy list of notes and ideas for further reading, but it is also personal — part memoir, part unflinching travelogue through the unsettling physical and mental challenges of the menopause … Honest and uplifting.’

FT
‘Beautifully composed and intensely sympathetic, The Middlepause: On Turning Fifty is wry, personal and intimate, while still being something of a road map for others.’ -- Viv Groskop The Sunday Telegraph

‘Women do a lot of things to mark turning fifty. Go to a resort! Have a bang-up party! Far, far better: read The Middlepause.’

Jill Lepore, author of The Secret History of Wonder Woman

‘Emotionally honest.’

-- Tom Gatti New Statesman

‘We are not supposed to beguile, we the middle-aged women. But with The Middlepause, Marina Benjamin does that: she beguiles and entrances with a lyrical, thoughtful, erudite, and always lucid exploration of the middle years of her life, and what they mean to her, and what middle-aged women mean to society.’

-- Rose George, author of The Big Necessity

‘Beautifully written and so thoughtful, The Middlepause made me think about fleeting time and what is important to me. I couldn’t put it down.’

-- Amy Jenkins, author of Honeymoon and creator of This Life

‘Renunciation, shape-shifting, ennui, sorrow: this tender and thoughtful book calls for an ‘invisible revolution’ in our attitudes to women’s ageing. In a deeply personal meditation Benjamin places body knowledge and luck alongside grieving and family history; intimate reflection with literary exemplar; communion with ghosts sadly close to the painful real. The Middlepause is a wise, lucid and beautiful plea for more candid discussion of the time-wrought transformations of the female body.’

-- Gail Jones, author of A Guide to Berlin

‘Intimate, open-hearted, clever and kind, this book is a companion which, by naming the shadow fears, finds the truer gold.’

-- Jay Griffiths, author of Kith

‘A candid and beautifully written “wrinkles and all” meditation on the middle years with all their dilemmas and challenges … [Marina Benjamin] seeks a new vision of how to be middle-aged happily and harmoniously without sentiment or delusion.’

-- Caroline Sanderson The Bookseller

‘A candid look at what it means to be 50 today … Warm, wise and beautifully written.’

Good Housekeeping

‘This is a measured and beautifully written critique of menopause and middle age that pre-, mid-, and postmenopausal women will find eminently relatable, and that those who love and care for them will likewise appreciate.’

Publishers Weekly

‘Benjamin takes us into her inner world — it’s instructive, and very moving.’

-- William Leith Evening Standard

‘Full of insight.’

-- Eleanor Mills Sunday Independent

‘In The Middlepause Benjamin deftly and brilliantly examines the losses and unexpected gains she experienced in menopause. Menopause is a mind and body shift as monumental and universal as puberty, yet far less often discussed, especially in public, which is what makes Benjamin’s work here so urgently necessary.’

-- Kate Tuttle The Los Angeles Times

‘Benjamin takes the process of self–help thoughtfully. For starters, to recognise change, rather than deny it, is to begin to deal with it.’

-- Iain Finlayson Saga Magazine

‘This gentle but honest book should be standard reading for friends and loved–ones of women trying to make sense of this transitional stage in life.’

-- Sue Wright The Malcontent

‘The Middlepause isn't some deluding self–help book that insists middle–age is a time of great growth for us all. It’s an accurate and thoughtful assessment of the credit and debit sheet, and it remains emotionally genuine throughout … This is a thoughtful, compassionate and wise book.’

Shiny New Books

Marina Benjamin’s most recent books are Insomnia, The Middlepause, Rocket Dreams, shortlisted for the Eugene Emme Award, and Last Days in Babylon, longlisted for the Wingate Prize. Her writing has appeared in Granta, The Guardian, The New York Times, The Paris Review, and the digital magazines Literary Hub and Aeon, where she is a senior editor. She lives in London.

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