Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor

I don’t want to diminish the suffering all friends go through with each other. Octogenarians have outlived enough to make them interesting irrespective of who they are, if you have the ability to listen to them clearly.īut being friends with old people gets heavy. They are so different from everyone else you know. It’s probably true, as Fran Lebowitz says, that you can only really understand someone of your own generation - that’s why keeping the company of older people is so rewarding. Old people are among the most underrated companions you can find. And if you are already well versed in the impending horrors of your dotage, you should only approach this book on a sunny day when there’s a bottle of good sherry waiting for you afterwards.

This masterpiece of a novel may or may not be the way you want to learn. There’s no mystery about why loneliness is the biggest health problem most elderly people have: we are not brave enough to see our future in such graphic detail. Most of us know less than nothing about old age. But this isn’t a risk you ought to be taking. I mean this like I mean it when I tell my children not to cross the road without me.

I will say it again, just so we are clear. And that, before the branch you perch on becomes a bare ruined choir, you will have to grow old. Just when you are enjoying a sunny spell as you walk down the street, you will remember, in the words of the poet, that like the generations of leaves so are the lives of mortal men. Like grief, this will be a feeling that vanishes to deceive. Anyone who pays serious attention to Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont ought come away from it feeling less able to cope with their life.

Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor