Happy Old Age
Why Not Grow Young ? By Robert W. Service. (Bean. 6s.)
THE author dedicates his volume to the middle-aged man, but I am not .quite sure whether this entertaining book is going to be a comfort to us middle-aged men or whether it is going to convert us all into hypochondriacs. One cannot believe that the average Englishman of fifty, or even of
fifty-five, has given as much thought to his physical condition or suffered from so many ailments as Mr. Service appears to consider inevitable in the man " whose hair is receding, whose waist advancing, but who loves life, and would fain call : Half Time."
My remembrance of Mr. Service, a year or two before the War, is of a slim youth, of serious and romantic mien, who found Paris very alluring, full of promise and containing material fit for treatment by a young author who had tasted to the full the robust flavours of the wilds and open spaces and was eager for the delicacies of a more selective life.
The War must have done strange things to the author. It was an experience that rejuvenated many of us. Mr. Service must at one time have been near a nervous breakdown. He has come through happily, however, and now rejoices as a giant to run his course. He tells us he is fifty-five to-day. So I find I am his senior : as such I resent and reject his solemn warnings.
He tells us that at fifty a man becomes aware of his internal organs and that he begins to pay attention to his lungs, liver and heart and to observe what these tell him. None of these organs has yet delivered any message to me nor rebelled at my treatment of them. I have no intention of giving up squash racquets, tennis, or my morning cold tub, as Mr. Service recommends, nor do I propose to deny myself a swim at any hour of the day or night.
I must confess, however, that the portraits of the author, one showing him weighing 12 stone 6 lbs., and the other 9 stone 9 lbs., are impressive recommendation of his regime, and I admit that his " Athanasius contra mundum " pose in the frontispiece bears testimony to his present magnificent physical condition.
Although I am bound to insist that this new and unusual health book is for the weakling rather than for the average man of affairs who has kept up his games, and his courage, yet I would seriously recommend its perusal by all those over fifty, even if they are content with their condition. It is full of humour, and contains good advice in spite of its
over-emphasis on counsels of caution. N. TnWAITES.
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