BEEN THERE FORGOT THE TEE SHIRT!, 05 Dec 2007
Shelly`s book is essential reading for anyone who has trailed aound the house looking for lost keys or come downstairs for something, having to go back upstairs to remember what it was! A funny book full of helpful hints to survive the mid and later life crisises.

Mick Drake author of the comic novel All`s Well at Wellwithoute

An odd little book, but entertaining , 24 Nov 2007
I bought this for my parents although, ironically, the print is rather small and I'm concerned that they may struggle with it! I started browsing through it myself and was hooked. The book is a complete hotchpotch of ideas and styles. There are quotes from politicians, writers, comedians and actors. One-liners, jokes, anecdotes and more serious advice. There is no over-riding structure, it just seems to ramble on in whichever direction feels good at the time.

It only took a couple of hours to read, so is not great value for money. Some of the advice comes across as a little obvious or patronising and feels a little out of place in what I took to be a humorous coffee table/bathroom book. There are a lot of well-known quotes in here which may again make you feel that you've wasted your money. It seems that the writer has a particular liking for certain comedians as well who are quoted bizarrely often.

Overall though it does take a light-hearted look at the effects of ageing (which it assumes occur in those turning 40, not just over retirement age). So not a bad little stocking filler.

very droll, 03 Apr 2006
we've all had them! there are some very good funny stories and quotes.. and the top tips are very inspirational.. .. nice to have a cheery book about this subject!

BEEN THERE FORGOT THE TEE SHIRT!, 05 Dec 2007
Shelly`s book is essential reading for anyone who has trailed aound the house looking for lost keys or come downstairs for something, having to go back upstairs to remember what it was! A funny book full of helpful hints to survive the mid and later life crisises.

Mick Drake author of the comic novel All`s Well at Wellwithoute

An odd little book, but entertaining , 24 Nov 2007
I bought this for my parents although, ironically, the print is rather small and I'm concerned that they may struggle with it! I started browsing through it myself and was hooked. The book is a complete hotchpotch of ideas and styles. There are quotes from politicians, writers, comedians and actors. One-liners, jokes, anecdotes and more serious advice. There is no over-riding structure, it just seems to ramble on in whichever direction feels good at the time.

It only took a couple of hours to read, so is not great value for money. Some of the advice comes across as a little obvious or patronising and feels a little out of place in what I took to be a humorous coffee table/bathroom book. There are a lot of well-known quotes in here which may again make you feel that you've wasted your money. It seems that the writer has a particular liking for certain comedians as well who are quoted bizarrely often.

Overall though it does take a light-hearted look at the effects of ageing (which it assumes occur in those turning 40, not just over retirement age). So not a bad little stocking filler.

very droll, 03 Apr 2006
we've all had them! there are some very good funny stories and quotes.. and the top tips are very inspirational.. .. nice to have a cheery book about this subject!

An honest and witty account about being a "certain age" !!, 15 Jul 2008
I ordered this, received it and read it cover to cover within a day and a half. What a great book! Aimed at those ladies who have woken up one day and realised that they have entered the "twilight" zone of no longer being young and not yet being old but just starting to see those dreaded signs of ageing creeping in....

Helen Frith-Powell gives a very informative, witty and honest account of various anti-ageing products and treatments out there...some useful, some scary and some downright mad! In the name of journalism and for the greater good of woman-kind (yeah, right Helena!), she undergoes several treatments and procedures herself with varying degrees of success. I particularly enjoyed her account of those treatments where she knew her husband would kill her when he found out but went ahead and did them anyway!!

There were also some very insightful remarks made by Helena about attitudes to ageing, which I'm sure most women would relate to and a few cautionary tales about how easy it is to take things too far and when to stop.

Okay, so this book is aimed at middle/upper class ladies in their 40's who have money to spend but so what? In these dreary times of credit crunches, belt tightening and general doom and gloom, it was a most enjoyable, funny and refreshing read.

As a 43 lady myself, I take my hat off to Helena for not wanting to "give up" just because she's getting older. Let's make the best of ourselves every day, after all, you're a long time dead....

Tantalizing story every woman will be glad she read!, 14 May 2008
Like most women, I am most curious to know the true story of all the cosmetic "wonder claims" from the best anti-wrinkle cream to how Botox "really works" to even plastic surgery without having to actually go through the expensive journey, myself. And really how effective are those natural methods offered that claim I can look younger and firmer without the high tech experience?
Helena has courageously and provocatively taken this tour for me and shared her experience in her new book. She has been able to make me laugh while also scaring me a bit on her journey through the fascinating world of anti-ageing. I actually found myself unable to put the book down from time to time in anticipation of whether or not Helena was going to actually go through an invasive procedure or not?! Such a great read! Her ability to share her process as she visits the most expensive and glamorous salons in the world to sharing the more natural processes for looking and staying younger kept me intrigued throughout the whole entire book.
I have to confess that I am Carolyn - one the people of whom Helena speaks about in her book that offers a more natural, viable alternative to fighting ageing, but this has not deterred me in any way from wanting to know more. I highly recommend this book to any of us wanting a glimpse of what it's like to explore the full spectrum of possibilities offered, from an insider's journey through the "land of anti-ageing" alternatives.


Fantastic book!, 21 Apr 2008
I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it. It's a very well-researched guide to the full range of anti-ageing treatments on the market as the author travels the globe in her quest to bring the reader the best information in the fight against ageing. I found myself laughing out loud whilst reading this as it is highly amusing as well as being an uplifting read. The author's trademark warmth and humour run throughout this book and, like her earlier books, it is not to be missed.

Funny and Informative; yoga will never be the same again!, 02 Apr 2008
I ordered this book because I love her blog and thoroughly enjoyed her other books especially Two Lipsticks and a Lover. While that dealt with Frenchwomen and how to look like and act one, this one is all about how to stay young-looking. The author has behaved rather like a method actor getting herself into all sorts of strange situations in her quest for eternal youth but comes out the other end (relatively) unscathed. This is a kind of 'everything you wanted to know about ageing but were afraid to ask' book. If you want to know how to avoid looking like an old crow without having to test everything yourself then this is the book for you. The information is accessible and as with Two Lipsticks and a Lover the author has managed to keep her sense of humour throughout. A very funny and informative read.

BEEN THERE FORGOT THE TEE SHIRT!, 05 Dec 2007
Shelly`s book is essential reading for anyone who has trailed aound the house looking for lost keys or come downstairs for something, having to go back upstairs to remember what it was! A funny book full of helpful hints to survive the mid and later life crisises.

Mick Drake author of the comic novel All`s Well at Wellwithoute

An odd little book, but entertaining , 24 Nov 2007
I bought this for my parents although, ironically, the print is rather small and I'm concerned that they may struggle with it! I started browsing through it myself and was hooked. The book is a complete hotchpotch of ideas and styles. There are quotes from politicians, writers, comedians and actors. One-liners, jokes, anecdotes and more serious advice. There is no over-riding structure, it just seems to ramble on in whichever direction feels good at the time.

It only took a couple of hours to read, so is not great value for money. Some of the advice comes across as a little obvious or patronising and feels a little out of place in what I took to be a humorous coffee table/bathroom book. There are a lot of well-known quotes in here which may again make you feel that you've wasted your money. It seems that the writer has a particular liking for certain comedians as well who are quoted bizarrely often.

Overall though it does take a light-hearted look at the effects of ageing (which it assumes occur in those turning 40, not just over retirement age). So not a bad little stocking filler.

very droll, 03 Apr 2006
we've all had them! there are some very good funny stories and quotes.. and the top tips are very inspirational.. .. nice to have a cheery book about this subject!

An honest and witty account about being a "certain age" !!, 15 Jul 2008
I ordered this, received it and read it cover to cover within a day and a half. What a great book! Aimed at those ladies who have woken up one day and realised that they have entered the "twilight" zone of no longer being young and not yet being old but just starting to see those dreaded signs of ageing creeping in....

Helen Frith-Powell gives a very informative, witty and honest account of various anti-ageing products and treatments out there...some useful, some scary and some downright mad! In the name of journalism and for the greater good of woman-kind (yeah, right Helena!), she undergoes several treatments and procedures herself with varying degrees of success. I particularly enjoyed her account of those treatments where she knew her husband would kill her when he found out but went ahead and did them anyway!!

There were also some very insightful remarks made by Helena about attitudes to ageing, which I'm sure most women would relate to and a few cautionary tales about how easy it is to take things too far and when to stop.

Okay, so this book is aimed at middle/upper class ladies in their 40's who have money to spend but so what? In these dreary times of credit crunches, belt tightening and general doom and gloom, it was a most enjoyable, funny and refreshing read.

As a 43 lady myself, I take my hat off to Helena for not wanting to "give up" just because she's getting older. Let's make the best of ourselves every day, after all, you're a long time dead....

Tantalizing story every woman will be glad she read!, 14 May 2008
Like most women, I am most curious to know the true story of all the cosmetic "wonder claims" from the best anti-wrinkle cream to how Botox "really works" to even plastic surgery without having to actually go through the expensive journey, myself. And really how effective are those natural methods offered that claim I can look younger and firmer without the high tech experience?
Helena has courageously and provocatively taken this tour for me and shared her experience in her new book. She has been able to make me laugh while also scaring me a bit on her journey through the fascinating world of anti-ageing. I actually found myself unable to put the book down from time to time in anticipation of whether or not Helena was going to actually go through an invasive procedure or not?! Such a great read! Her ability to share her process as she visits the most expensive and glamorous salons in the world to sharing the more natural processes for looking and staying younger kept me intrigued throughout the whole entire book.
I have to confess that I am Carolyn - one the people of whom Helena speaks about in her book that offers a more natural, viable alternative to fighting ageing, but this has not deterred me in any way from wanting to know more. I highly recommend this book to any of us wanting a glimpse of what it's like to explore the full spectrum of possibilities offered, from an insider's journey through the "land of anti-ageing" alternatives.


Fantastic book!, 21 Apr 2008
I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it. It's a very well-researched guide to the full range of anti-ageing treatments on the market as the author travels the globe in her quest to bring the reader the best information in the fight against ageing. I found myself laughing out loud whilst reading this as it is highly amusing as well as being an uplifting read. The author's trademark warmth and humour run throughout this book and, like her earlier books, it is not to be missed.

Funny and Informative; yoga will never be the same again!, 02 Apr 2008
I ordered this book because I love her blog and thoroughly enjoyed her other books especially Two Lipsticks and a Lover. While that dealt with Frenchwomen and how to look like and act one, this one is all about how to stay young-looking. The author has behaved rather like a method actor getting herself into all sorts of strange situations in her quest for eternal youth but comes out the other end (relatively) unscathed. This is a kind of 'everything you wanted to know about ageing but were afraid to ask' book. If you want to know how to avoid looking like an old crow without having to test everything yourself then this is the book for you. The information is accessible and as with Two Lipsticks and a Lover the author has managed to keep her sense of humour throughout. A very funny and informative read.

Not working really sounds like a great joy, 10 Jul 2008
I love this book. You can pick it up and read any chapter and feel energised. I found it cathartic and uplifting and would recommend it to anyone whether about to retire, or merely wanting to step down the stress ladder and get life's priorities right.

There are many books about down-sizing ones life but this is well written, humourous, and great fun.

Amusing, wise, easy to dip into informative book., 13 Jun 2002
For anyone driven to work hard due to overconditioning in the work ethic this book is a must. The Chapter "Life Of O'Rielly" emphasises the stresses of modern life and how, with a different atttitude these can be avoided. For those about to retire this book is a must, however it is a good read for anyone in work who wants to alter their lifestyle. Zalinsky writes infomatively on many subjects, from using one's brain creatively to avoiding negative people. This book does not advocate idleness instead it gives pointers to enjoying life. The author discovered the joy of not working when he lost his job. After a period of despondancy, he discovered that a more liesurly pace of life has much to offer and a lot of money is not always necessary.

Average at best, 10 Aug 1999
There are a lot of great books that deal with creativity. This is not one of them. Average, at best, it might fit the bill is someone was looking for a superfluous treatment of creativity.

Big on inspiration, little on practical advice., 07 Jun 1999
This book would be much more effective if it gave practical advice like 'Your Money Or Your Life'. There is little advice on how you get from one financial situation to the other and assumes perfect health (no reliance on health insurance)and diverse talents (able to get money only as needed). If you are in less perfect health, definitely give this book to a younger, healthier person.

One of Top 3 books on business I've ever read, 28 Dec 1998
Even though the Joy of Not Working is technically not a business book, I'd lump it in that category nonetheless. I've read what seems like a gazillion books and I have to rate this little jewel as one of the three best business/lifestyle books I've ever read (the other two are Hawkins' Growing a Business and Lancaster's Secret Money Machine)--it's filled with wit and humor and tons of little tips. I've read it three times and Zelinski seems to add stuff between each reading. Enlighted guy!

BEEN THERE FORGOT THE TEE SHIRT!, 05 Dec 2007
Shelly`s book is essential reading for anyone who has trailed aound the house looking for lost keys or come downstairs for something, having to go back upstairs to remember what it was! A funny book full of helpful hints to survive the mid and later life crisises.

Mick Drake author of the comic novel All`s Well at Wellwithoute

An odd little book, but entertaining , 24 Nov 2007
I bought this for my parents although, ironically, the print is rather small and I'm concerned that they may struggle with it! I started browsing through it myself and was hooked. The book is a complete hotchpotch of ideas and styles. There are quotes from politicians, writers, comedians and actors. One-liners, jokes, anecdotes and more serious advice. There is no over-riding structure, it just seems to ramble on in whichever direction feels good at the time.

It only took a couple of hours to read, so is not great value for money. Some of the advice comes across as a little obvious or patronising and feels a little out of place in what I took to be a humorous coffee table/bathroom book. There are a lot of well-known quotes in here which may again make you feel that you've wasted your money. It seems that the writer has a particular liking for certain comedians as well who are quoted bizarrely often.

Overall though it does take a light-hearted look at the effects of ageing (which it assumes occur in those turning 40, not just over retirement age). So not a bad little stocking filler.

very droll, 03 Apr 2006
we've all had them! there are some very good funny stories and quotes.. and the top tips are very inspirational.. .. nice to have a cheery book about this subject!

An honest and witty account about being a "certain age" !!, 15 Jul 2008
I ordered this, received it and read it cover to cover within a day and a half. What a great book! Aimed at those ladies who have woken up one day and realised that they have entered the "twilight" zone of no longer being young and not yet being old but just starting to see those dreaded signs of ageing creeping in....

Helen Frith-Powell gives a very informative, witty and honest account of various anti-ageing products and treatments out there...some useful, some scary and some downright mad! In the name of journalism and for the greater good of woman-kind (yeah, right Helena!), she undergoes several treatments and procedures herself with varying degrees of success. I particularly enjoyed her account of those treatments where she knew her husband would kill her when he found out but went ahead and did them anyway!!

There were also some very insightful remarks made by Helena about attitudes to ageing, which I'm sure most women would relate to and a few cautionary tales about how easy it is to take things too far and when to stop.

Okay, so this book is aimed at middle/upper class ladies in their 40's who have money to spend but so what? In these dreary times of credit crunches, belt tightening and general doom and gloom, it was a most enjoyable, funny and refreshing read.

As a 43 lady myself, I take my hat off to Helena for not wanting to "give up" just because she's getting older. Let's make the best of ourselves every day, after all, you're a long time dead....

Tantalizing story every woman will be glad she read!, 14 May 2008
Like most women, I am most curious to know the true story of all the cosmetic "wonder claims" from the best anti-wrinkle cream to how Botox "really works" to even plastic surgery without having to actually go through the expensive journey, myself. And really how effective are those natural methods offered that claim I can look younger and firmer without the high tech experience?
Helena has courageously and provocatively taken this tour for me and shared her experience in her new book. She has been able to make me laugh while also scaring me a bit on her journey through the fascinating world of anti-ageing. I actually found myself unable to put the book down from time to time in anticipation of whether or not Helena was going to actually go through an invasive procedure or not?! Such a great read! Her ability to share her process as she visits the most expensive and glamorous salons in the world to sharing the more natural processes for looking and staying younger kept me intrigued throughout the whole entire book.
I have to confess that I am Carolyn - one the people of whom Helena speaks about in her book that offers a more natural, viable alternative to fighting ageing, but this has not deterred me in any way from wanting to know more. I highly recommend this book to any of us wanting a glimpse of what it's like to explore the full spectrum of possibilities offered, from an insider's journey through the "land of anti-ageing" alternatives.


Fantastic book!, 21 Apr 2008
I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it. It's a very well-researched guide to the full range of anti-ageing treatments on the market as the author travels the globe in her quest to bring the reader the best information in the fight against ageing. I found myself laughing out loud whilst reading this as it is highly amusing as well as being an uplifting read. The author's trademark warmth and humour run throughout this book and, like her earlier books, it is not to be missed.

Funny and Informative; yoga will never be the same again!, 02 Apr 2008
I ordered this book because I love her blog and thoroughly enjoyed her other books especially Two Lipsticks and a Lover. While that dealt with Frenchwomen and how to look like and act one, this one is all about how to stay young-looking. The author has behaved rather like a method actor getting herself into all sorts of strange situations in her quest for eternal youth but comes out the other end (relatively) unscathed. This is a kind of 'everything you wanted to know about ageing but were afraid to ask' book. If you want to know how to avoid looking like an old crow without having to test everything yourself then this is the book for you. The information is accessible and as with Two Lipsticks and a Lover the author has managed to keep her sense of humour throughout. A very funny and informative read.

Not working really sounds like a great joy, 10 Jul 2008
I love this book. You can pick it up and read any chapter and feel energised. I found it cathartic and uplifting and would recommend it to anyone whether about to retire, or merely wanting to step down the stress ladder and get life's priorities right.

There are many books about down-sizing ones life but this is well written, humourous, and great fun.

Amusing, wise, easy to dip into informative book., 13 Jun 2002
For anyone driven to work hard due to overconditioning in the work ethic this book is a must. The Chapter "Life Of O'Rielly" emphasises the stresses of modern life and how, with a different atttitude these can be avoided. For those about to retire this book is a must, however it is a good read for anyone in work who wants to alter their lifestyle. Zalinsky writes infomatively on many subjects, from using one's brain creatively to avoiding negative people. This book does not advocate idleness instead it gives pointers to enjoying life. The author discovered the joy of not working when he lost his job. After a period of despondancy, he discovered that a more liesurly pace of life has much to offer and a lot of money is not always necessary.

Average at best, 10 Aug 1999
There are a lot of great books that deal with creativity. This is not one of them. Average, at best, it might fit the bill is someone was looking for a superfluous treatment of creativity.

Big on inspiration, little on practical advice., 07 Jun 1999
This book would be much more effective if it gave practical advice like 'Your Money Or Your Life'. There is little advice on how you get from one financial situation to the other and assumes perfect health (no reliance on health insurance)and diverse talents (able to get money only as needed). If you are in less perfect health, definitely give this book to a younger, healthier person.

One of Top 3 books on business I've ever read, 28 Dec 1998
Even though the Joy of Not Working is technically not a business book, I'd lump it in that category nonetheless. I've read what seems like a gazillion books and I have to rate this little jewel as one of the three best business/lifestyle books I've ever read (the other two are Hawkins' Growing a Business and Lancaster's Secret Money Machine)--it's filled with wit and humor and tons of little tips. I've read it three times and Zelinski seems to add stuff between each reading. Enlighted guy!

More Pieces Than Bits, 23 Aug 2008
William Leith is a journalist and the author of the bestselling book on over-consumption called, The hungry Years, in which his addictions to food, alcohol and everything else were torn apart in minute detail to great acclaim.

I will confess that I had never heard of William Leith nor his previous book until I read several other reviews of his new book, Bits Of Me Are Falling Apart. Immediately I was fasinated to read this book. Firstly, I'm about Leith's age and it sounded as though we shared some common ground in the fact we both feel at that time in life when you are more old than young and things are never going to get better. And secondly, the author of the book I had just bought lived just down the road from me via a couple of villages, so we were off to a good start.

This book could have been written for the fortysomething bloke who may feel washed up and in despair as to what to do next before time runs out. But it is a book for anyone who enjoys reading what a skilled writer can do when they wish to weave their web in a casual and direct way. Of course, Leith has had years of perfecting his art, and his style has been honed to taking the trival and everyday and turning it into wriiten gold.

Leith begins by waking up on a mattress in his office and from then on we are treated to just over two hundred pages of a day in the life of William Leith and his thoughts on just about everything for the banking system to the state of his left shoulder. This is done in an almost rambling, stream of conciousness style. His body is falling apart, cells are conflicting with each other causing everything to go wrong, and this in turn is Leith's metaphor for what is happening in society: everything is falling apart.

From the start Leith tells us all about his particular falling apart and I found he sounded more like a sixty-seven year old suffering from hypochondria rather than a forty-seven year old with the same complaint. Leith must have played hard to end up in this condition and he seems preoccupied with all types of illnesses which he may or may not get.

This of course all adds to the writer's arsenal of material which fellow journalist, the late Jeffrey Bernard used so successfully in his Low Life columns in the Spectator magazine. Rather than Bernard, I immediately thought of Simon Gray's diaries when reading Leith's thoughts on the human condition and the way he so brilliantly slides off his subject and on to another and another. If Leith is very, very clever at this then Simon Gray was the ultimate master of it, chewing and mulling over words, paragraphs and then almost throwing them away and then catching them again.

Leith can't quite take away Simon Gray's crown with this book nor has he intended to; he is far too good a writer for that. There is a certain take on a subject that may leave some readers feeling cold and there is a lot of bleakness here as well. Leith's day has the feeling of just coming out of rehab and having to face the outside world again without the booze and drugs in a nervous fractured way.

But if like me you want someone to sum what semi-middle age is all about then they will do no worst than to investigate Leith's thoughts on the subject. I'm glad to have found William Leith but I'm not sure if I like his world. This book is at times too near the truth, and that is why it deserves to be a best-seller.

BEEN THERE FORGOT THE TEE SHIRT!, 05 Dec 2007
Shelly`s book is essential reading for anyone who has trailed aound the house looking for lost keys or come downstairs for something, having to go back upstairs to remember what it was! A funny book full of helpful hints to survive the mid and later life crisises.

Mick Drake author of the comic novel All`s Well at Wellwithoute

An odd little book, but entertaining , 24 Nov 2007
I bought this for my parents although, ironically, the print is rather small and I'm concerned that they may struggle with it! I started browsing through it myself and was hooked. The book is a complete hotchpotch of ideas and styles. There are quotes from politicians, writers, comedians and actors. One-liners, jokes, anecdotes and more serious advice. There is no over-riding structure, it just seems to ramble on in whichever direction feels good at the time.

It only took a couple of hours to read, so is not great value for money. Some of the advice comes across as a little obvious or patronising and feels a little out of place in what I took to be a humorous coffee table/bathroom book. There are a lot of well-known quotes in here which may again make you feel that you've wasted your money. It seems that the writer has a particular liking for certain comedians as well who are quoted bizarrely often.

Overall though it does take a light-hearted look at the effects of ageing (which it assumes occur in those turning 40, not just over retirement age). So not a bad little stocking filler.

very droll, 03 Apr 2006
we've all had them! there are some very good funny stories and quotes.. and the top tips are very inspirational.. .. nice to have a cheery book about this subject!

An honest and witty account about being a "certain age" !!, 15 Jul 2008
I ordered this, received it and read it cover to cover within a day and a half. What a great book! Aimed at those ladies who have woken up one day and realised that they have entered the "twilight" zone of no longer being young and not yet being old but just starting to see those dreaded signs of ageing creeping in....

Helen Frith-Powell gives a very informative, witty and honest account of various anti-ageing products and treatments out there...some useful, some scary and some downright mad! In the name of journalism and for the greater good of woman-kind (yeah, right Helena!), she undergoes several treatments and procedures herself with varying degrees of success. I particularly enjoyed her account of those treatments where she knew her husband would kill her when he found out but went ahead and did them anyway!!

There were also some very insightful remarks made by Helena about attitudes to ageing, which I'm sure most women would relate to and a few cautionary tales about how easy it is to take things too far and when to stop.

Okay, so this book is aimed at middle/upper class ladies in their 40's who have money to spend but so what? In these dreary times of credit crunches, belt tightening and general doom and gloom, it was a most enjoyable, funny and refreshing read.

As a 43 lady myself, I take my hat off to Helena for not wanting to "give up" just because she's getting older. Let's make the best of ourselves every day, after all, you're a long time dead....

Tantalizing story every woman will be glad she read!, 14 May 2008
Like most women, I am most curious to know the true story of all the cosmetic "wonder claims" from the best anti-wrinkle cream to how Botox "really works" to even plastic surgery without having to actually go through the expensive journey, myself. And really how effective are those natural methods offered that claim I can look younger and firmer without the high tech experience?
Helena has courageously and provocatively taken this tour for me and shared her experience in her new book. She has been able to make me laugh while also scaring me a bit on her journey through the fascinating world of anti-ageing. I actually found myself unable to put the book down from time to time in anticipation of whether or not Helena was going to actually go through an invasive procedure or not?! Such a great read! Her ability to share her process as she visits the most expensive and glamorous salons in the world to sharing the more natural processes for looking and staying younger kept me intrigued throughout the whole entire book.
I have to confess that I am Carolyn - one the people of whom Helena speaks about in her book that offers a more natural, viable alternative to fighting ageing, but this has not deterred me in any way from wanting to know more. I highly recommend this book to any of us wanting a glimpse of what it's like to explore the full spectrum of possibilities offered, from an insider's journey through the "land of anti-ageing" alternatives.


Fantastic book!, 21 Apr 2008
I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it. It's a very well-researched guide to the full range of anti-ageing treatments on the market as the author travels the globe in her quest to bring the reader the best information in the fight against ageing. I found myself laughing out loud whilst reading this as it is highly amusing as well as being an uplifting read. The author's trademark warmth and humour run throughout this book and, like her earlier books, it is not to be missed.

Funny and Informative; yoga will never be the same again!, 02 Apr 2008
I ordered this book because I love her blog and thoroughly enjoyed her other books especially Two Lipsticks and a Lover. While that dealt with Frenchwomen and how to look like and act one, this one is all about how to stay young-looking. The author has behaved rather like a method actor getting herself into all sorts of strange situations in her quest for eternal youth but comes out the other end (relatively) unscathed. This is a kind of 'everything you wanted to know about ageing but were afraid to ask' book. If you want to know how to avoid looking like an old crow without having to test everything yourself then this is the book for you. The information is accessible and as with Two Lipsticks and a Lover the author has managed to keep her sense of humour throughout. A very funny and informative read.

Not working really sounds like a great joy, 10 Jul 2008
I love this book. You can pick it up and read any chapter and feel energised. I found it cathartic and uplifting and would recommend it to anyone whether about to retire, or merely wanting to step down the stress ladder and get life's priorities right.

There are many books about down-sizing ones life but this is well written, humourous, and great fun.

Amusing, wise, easy to dip into informative book., 13 Jun 2002
For anyone driven to work hard due to overconditioning in the work ethic this book is a must. The Chapter "Life Of O'Rielly" emphasises the stresses of modern life and how, with a different atttitude these can be avoided. For those about to retire this book is a must, however it is a good read for anyone in work who wants to alter their lifestyle. Zalinsky writes infomatively on many subjects, from using one's brain creatively to avoiding negative people. This book does not advocate idleness instead it gives pointers to enjoying life. The author discovered the joy of not working when he lost his job. After a period of despondancy, he discovered that a more liesurly pace of life has much to offer and a lot of money is not always necessary.

Average at best, 10 Aug 1999
There are a lot of great books that deal with creativity. This is not one of them. Average, at best, it might fit the bill is someone was looking for a superfluous treatment of creativity.

Big on inspiration, little on practical advice., 07 Jun 1999
This book would be much more effective if it gave practical advice like 'Your Money Or Your Life'. There is little advice on how you get from one financial situation to the other and assumes perfect health (no reliance on health insurance)and diverse talents (able to get money only as needed). If you are in less perfect health, definitely give this book to a younger, healthier person.

One of Top 3 books on business I've ever read, 28 Dec 1998
Even though the Joy of Not Working is technically not a business book, I'd lump it in that category nonetheless. I've read what seems like a gazillion books and I have to rate this little jewel as one of the three best business/lifestyle books I've ever read (the other two are Hawkins' Growing a Business and Lancaster's Secret Money Machine)--it's filled with wit and humor and tons of little tips. I've read it three times and Zelinski seems to add stuff between each reading. Enlighted guy!

More Pieces Than Bits, 23 Aug 2008
William Leith is a journalist and the author of the bestselling book on over-consumption called, The hungry Years, in which his addictions to food, alcohol and everything else were torn apart in minute detail to great acclaim.

I will confess that I had never heard of William Leith nor his previous book until I read several other reviews of his new book, Bits Of Me Are Falling Apart. Immediately I was fasinated to read this book. Firstly, I'm about Leith's age and it sounded as though we shared some common ground in the fact we both feel at that time in life when you are more old than young and things are never going to get better. And secondly, the author of the book I had just bought lived just down the road from me via a couple of villages, so we were off to a good start.

This book could have been written for the fortysomething bloke who may feel washed up and in despair as to what to do next before time runs out. But it is a book for anyone who enjoys reading what a skilled writer can do when they wish to weave their web in a casual and direct way. Of course, Leith has had years of perfecting his art, and his style has been honed to taking the trival and everyday and turning it into wriiten gold.

Leith begins by waking up on a mattress in his office and from then on we are treated to just over two hundred pages of a day in the life of William Leith and his thoughts on just about everything for the banking system to the state of his left shoulder. This is done in an almost rambling, stream of conciousness style. His body is falling apart, cells are conflicting with each other causing everything to go wrong, and this in turn is Leith's metaphor for what is happening in society: everything is falling apart.

From the start Leith tells us all about his particular falling apart and I found he sounded more like a sixty-seven year old suffering from hypochondria rather than a forty-seven year old with the same complaint. Leith must have played hard to end up in this condition and he seems preoccupied with all types of illnesses which he may or may not get.

This of course all adds to the writer's arsenal of material which fellow journalist, the late Jeffrey Bernard used so successfully in his Low Life columns in the Spectator magazine. Rather than Bernard, I immediately thought of Simon Gray's diaries when reading Leith's thoughts on the human condition and the way he so brilliantly slides off his subject and on to another and another. If Leith is very, very clever at this then Simon Gray was the ultimate master of it, chewing and mulling over words, paragraphs and then almost throwing them away and then catching them again.

Leith can't quite take away Simon Gray's crown with this book nor has he intended to; he is far too good a writer for that. There is a certain take on a subject that may leave some readers feeling cold and there is a lot of bleakness here as well. Leith's day has the feeling of just coming out of rehab and having to face the outside world again without the booze and drugs in a nervous fractured way.

But if like me you want someone to sum what semi-middle age is all about then they will do no worst than to investigate Leith's thoughts on the subject. I'm glad to have found William Leith but I'm not sure if I like his world. This book is at times too near the truth, and that is why it deserves to be a best-seller.

Funny, 18 Oct 2008
This story is highly entertaining, witty and full of life. A great book to enlighten people whose lives have been touched by vascular dementia.

Memory as Bereavement, 26 Feb 2004
This is a beautifully written book, exploring the consequences of loss - the gradual loss of memory because of illness, the loss of time, of the past, of meaning. Linda Grant's mother had a particular form of dementia - Multi-Infarct Dementia - but this is a book which will have a meaning for anyone touched by Alzheimer's.

This is an exercise in archaeology - in taking people for granted, in wanting to be a teenager, to become an adult in your own right, to escape from your parents. It's only when you lose them you begin to ask the questions you wish had recognised while they were around. Roots. Identity. Where did the family come from, what was their history, how did they cope, how did they live?

Linda Grant's family were immigrants, fleeing from oppression in 19th century Europe. They reached England by accident or design, some on forged documents. They changed their names. Those who remained behind were consumed by the Holocaust. By the time Linda Grant began speculating on her roots, only her mother was left ... and her mother's memories were colander secure ... they were leaking away.

It is a sense of loss to which I can relate: I'm illegitimate; I lost half my roots before I was born. My mother died suddenly - no wasting disease for her. But I'd never talked to her, asked her the sorts of questions I wish I had. How many of us do ask the questions? How many of us do take the time to inquire, to treat our parents' and grandparents' lives and histories as significant?

Linda Grant, and countless thousands of others, have to endure watching a loved one ebb away. It's as if they fade, become invisible.

This is a book on which you can hang your heart and emotions. It is never clawingly sentimental. It does not explore the practicalities of coping. But it does ask essential questions about how we value ourselves and our families: our identities, our 'selfs', are built from memories, are cemented together by memories and personal histories.

You do not need to be touched by dementia to find this book valuable. It is, quite simply, a beautiful book about family, about family history, and about the discovery of self.

Slightly depressing book by a brilliant writer, 25 Aug 2002
Linda Grant is a fine author and, I think, a brilliant writer, but, unlike other reviewers, I did find this book mildly depressing - perhaps because there was no happy outcome for any of the figures in the book - indeed no happy outcome would be possible.

Grant's confusion about the veracity of her past - were the stories, handed down oral traditions, about the various members of her family and incidents of her childhood - true? - interpretations according to the teller? - utterly fabricated? was an interesting angle which must chime with many of us - how can we ever know the truth of much of what we are told about our background and childhood, especially when, as in Grant's case, there is an almost pathological need in her mother to present things in the most acceptable (to herself) light and not "tell everyone our business".

I empathised with Grant's anger and frustration with the Social Services and their appalling 'Catch 22' policies, and with her frustrated irritation with her demented mother - a mother, moreover, who has not been a great mother or even a particularly loving one and who is consequently difficult for Grant herself to love. I appreciated her honesty about this, but found Margaret Forster's novel on a similar theme, "Have the Men had Enough?" more moving.

very humane , very sane and not least depressing., 26 Jun 1999
Why is this book such a success? whether one is interested in dementia or not, families and this one in particular, there is something right about this book. So seemingly effortless is it's fluency, it's grasp of detail, that the impression given is not so much of partial human artifact and all the artifices associated with it, but of self-authentication and integrity. there is little or no ingratiating embellishment so easy when matters of deep emotion are being dealt with.

Scenes recalling the homes for the elderly, old childhood haunts, childhood routes through cities, all these, just ARE, manifest in the present tense of her writing.

No rancour or bitterness for the way things are with an ill and difficult mother, but a calm recognition of our own histories as determining ourselves, the rotten bits included.

Never have i read a book so calm, yet so full of lively recall not shamefully damaging nor confessional and there are enough of those sorts of books. a truely fascinating retelling.

Hilarious, heart-rending account a must-read, 05 Nov 1998
This is the best book I've read in years. It deals with the descent of Grant's mother into the oblivion that is dementia, and the nightmare that is getting her rehoused. Moreover, it is a savage indictment of the Grant family's re-invention and bid to escape from its Jewish roots. This is a woman who knows "mental illness" at first hand, and boy, does she compel the reader. Had me screaming with laughter and shedding tears galore. GET IT.

BEEN THERE FORGOT THE TEE SHIRT!, 05 Dec 2007
Shelly`s book is essential reading for anyone who has trailed aound the house looking for lost keys or come downstairs for something, having to go back upstairs to remember what it was! A funny book full of helpful hints to survive the mid and later life crisises.

Mick Drake author of the comic novel All`s Well at Wellwithoute

An odd little book, but entertaining , 24 Nov 2007
I bought this for my parents although, ironically, the print is rather small and I'm concerned that they may struggle with it! I started browsing through it myself and was hooked. The book is a complete hotchpotch of ideas and styles. There are quotes from politicians, writers, comedians and actors. One-liners, jokes, anecdotes and more serious advice. There is no over-riding structure, it just seems to ramble on in whichever direction feels good at the time.

It only took a couple of hours to read, so is not great value for money. Some of the advice comes across as a little obvious or patronising and feels a little out of place in what I took to be a humorous coffee table/bathroom book. There are a lot of well-known quotes in here which may again make you feel that you've wasted your money. It seems that the writer has a particular liking for certain comedians as well who are quoted bizarrely often.

Overall though it does take a light-hearted look at the effects of ageing (which it assumes occur in those turning 40, not just over retirement age). So not a bad little stocking filler.

very droll, 03 Apr 2006
we've all had them! there are some very good funny stories and quotes.. and the top tips are very inspirational.. .. nice to have a cheery book about this subject!

An honest and witty account about being a "certain age" !!, 15 Jul 2008
I ordered this, received it and read it cover to cover within a day and a half. What a great book! Aimed at those ladies who have woken up one day and realised that they have entered the "twilight" zone of no longer being young and not yet being old but just starting to see those dreaded signs of ageing creeping in....

Helen Frith-Powell gives a very informative, witty and honest account of various anti-ageing products and treatments out there...some useful, some scary and some downright mad! In the name of journalism and for the greater good of woman-kind (yeah, right Helena!), she undergoes several treatments and procedures herself with varying degrees of success. I particularly enjoyed her account of those treatments where she knew her husband would kill her when he found out but went ahead and did them anyway!!

There were also some very insightful remarks made by Helena about attitudes to ageing, which I'm sure most women would relate to and a few cautionary tales about how easy it is to take things too far and when to stop.

Okay, so this book is aimed at middle/upper class ladies in their 40's who have money to spend but so what? In these dreary times of credit crunches, belt tightening and general doom and gloom, it was a most enjoyable, funny and refreshing read.

As a 43 lady myself, I take my hat off to Helena for not wanting to "give up" just because she's getting older. Let's make the best of ourselves every day, after all, you're a long time dead....

Tantalizing story every woman will be glad she read!, 14 May 2008
Like most women, I am most curious to know the true story of all the cosmetic "wonder claims" from the best anti-wrinkle cream to how Botox "really works" to even plastic surgery without having to actually go through the expensive journey, myself. And really how effective are those natural methods offered that claim I can look younger and firmer without the high tech experience?
Helena has courageously and provocatively taken this tour for me and shared her experience in her new book. She has been able to make me laugh while also scaring me a bit on her journey through the fascinating world of anti-ageing. I actually found myself unable to put the book down from time to time in anticipation of whether or not Helena was going to actually go through an invasive procedure or not?! Such a great read! Her ability to share her process as she visits the most expensive and glamorous salons in the world to sharing the more natural processes for looking and staying younger kept me intrigued throughout the whole entire book.
I have to confess that I am Carolyn - one the people of whom Helena speaks about in her book that offers a more natural, viable alternative to fighting ageing, but this has not deterred me in any way from wanting to know more. I highly recommend this book to any of us wanting a glimpse of what it's like to explore the full spectrum of possibilities offered, from an insider's journey through the "land of anti-ageing" alternatives.


Fantastic book!, 21 Apr 2008
I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it. It's a very well-researched guide to the full range of anti-ageing treatments on the market as the author travels the globe in her quest to bring the reader the best information in the fight against ageing. I found myself laughing out loud whilst reading this as it is highly amusing as well as being an uplifting read. The author's trademark warmth and humour run throughout this book and, like her earlier books, it is not to be missed.

Funny and Informative; yoga will never be the same again!, 02 Apr 2008
I ordered this book because I love her blog and thoroughly enjoyed her other books especially Two Lipsticks and a Lover. While that dealt with Frenchwomen and how to look like and act one, this one is all about how to stay young-looking. The author has behaved rather like a method actor getting herself into all sorts of strange situations in her quest for eternal youth but comes out the other end (relatively) unscathed. This is a kind of 'everything you wanted to know about ageing but were afraid to ask' book. If you want to know how to avoid looking like an old crow without having to test everything yourself then this is the book for you. The information is accessible and as with Two Lipsticks and a Lover the author has managed to keep her sense of humour throughout. A very funny and informative read.

Not working really sounds like a great joy, 10 Jul 2008
I love this book. You can pick it up and read any chapter and feel energised. I found it cathartic and uplifting and would recommend it to anyone whether about to retire, or merely wanting to step down the stress ladder and get life's priorities right.

There are many books about down-sizing ones life but this is well written, humourous, and great fun.

Amusing, wise, easy to dip into informative book., 13 Jun 2002
For anyone driven to work hard due to overconditioning in the work ethic this book is a must. The Chapter "Life Of O'Rielly" emphasises the stresses of modern life and how, with a different atttitude these can be avoided. For those about to retire this book is a must, however it is a good read for anyone in work who wants to alter their lifestyle. Zalinsky writes infomatively on many subjects, from using one's brain creatively to avoiding negative people. This book does not advocate idleness instead it gives pointers to enjoying life. The author discovered the joy of not working when he lost his job. After a period of despondancy, he discovered that a more liesurly pace of life has much to offer and a lot of money is not always necessary.

Average at best, 10 Aug 1999
There are a lot of great books that deal with creativity. This is not one of them. Average, at best, it might fit the bill is someone was looking for a superfluous treatment of creativity.

Big on inspiration, little on practical advice., 07 Jun 1999
This book would be much more effective if it gave practical advice like 'Your Money Or Your Life'. There is little advice on how you get from one financial situation to the other and assumes perfect health (no reliance on health insurance)and diverse talents (able to get money only as needed). If you are in less perfect health, definitely give this book to a younger, healthier person.

One of Top 3 books on business I've ever read, 28 Dec 1998
Even though the Joy of Not Working is technically not a business book, I'd lump it in that category nonetheless. I've read what seems like a gazillion books and I have to rate this little jewel as one of the three best business/lifestyle books I've ever read (the other two are Hawkins' Growing a Business and Lancaster's Secret Money Machine)--it's filled with wit and humor and tons of little tips. I've read it three times and Zelinski seems to add stuff between each reading. Enlighted guy!

More Pieces Than Bits, 23 Aug 2008
William Leith is a journalist and the author of the bestselling book on over-consumption called, The hungry Years, in which his addictions to food, alcohol and everything else were torn apart in minute detail to great acclaim.

I will confess that I had never heard of William Leith nor his previous book until I read several other reviews of his new book, Bits Of Me Are Falling Apart. Immediately I was fasinated to read this book. Firstly, I'm about Leith's age and it sounded as though we shared some common ground in the fact we both feel at that time in life when you are more old than young and things are never going to get better. And secondly, the author of the book I had just bought lived just down the road from me via a couple of villages, so we were off to a good start.

This book could have been written for the fortysomething bloke who may feel washed up and in despair as to what to do next before time runs out. But it is a book for anyone who enjoys reading what a skilled writer can do when they wish to weave their web in a casual and direct way. Of course, Leith has had years of perfecting his art, and his style has been honed to taking the trival and everyday and turning it into wriiten gold.

Leith begins by waking up on a mattress in his office and from then on we are treated to just over two hundred pages of a day in the life of William Leith and his thoughts on just about everything for the banking system to the state of his left shoulder. This is done in an almost rambling, stream of conciousness style. His body is falling apart, cells are conflicting with each other causing everything to go wrong, and this in turn is Leith's metaphor for what is happening in society: everything is falling apart.

From the start Leith tells us all about his particular falling apart and I found he sounded more like a sixty-seven year old suffering from hypochondria rather than a forty-seven year old with the same complaint. Leith must have played hard to end up in this condition and he seems preoccupied with all types of illnesses which he may or may not get.

This of course all adds to the writer's arsenal of material which fellow journalist, the late Jeffrey Bernard used so successfully in his Low Life columns in the Spectator magazine. Rather than Bernard, I immediately thought of Simon Gray's diaries when reading Leith's thoughts on the human condition and the way he so brilliantly slides off his subject and on to another and another. If Leith is very, very clever at this then Simon Gray was the ultimate master of it, chewing and mulling over words, paragraphs and then almost throwing them away and then catching them again.

Leith can't quite take away Simon Gray's crown with this book nor has he intended to; he is far too good a writer for that. There is a certain take on a subject that may leave some readers feeling cold and there is a lot of bleakness here as well. Leith's day has the feeling of just coming out of rehab and having to face the outside world again without the booze and drugs in a nervous fractured way.

But if like me you want someone to sum what semi-middle age is all about then they will do no worst than to investigate Leith's thoughts on the subject. I'm glad to have found William Leith but I'm not sure if I like his world. This book is at times too near the truth, and that is why it deserves to be a best-seller.

Funny, 18 Oct 2008
This story is highly entertaining, witty and full of life. A great book to enlighten people whose lives have been touched by vascular dementia.

Memory as Bereavement, 26 Feb 2004
This is a beautifully written book, exploring the consequences of loss - the gradual loss of memory because of illness, the loss of time, of the past, of meaning. Linda Grant's mother had a particular form of dementia - Multi-Infarct Dementia - but this is a book which will have a meaning for anyone touched by Alzheimer's.

This is an exercise in archaeology - in taking people for granted, in wanting to be a teenager, to become an adult in your own right, to escape from your parents. It's only when you lose them you begin to ask the questions you wish had recognised while they were around. Roots. Identity. Where did the family come from, what was their history, how did they cope, how did they live?

Linda Grant's family were immigrants, fleeing from oppression in 19th century Europe. They reached England by accident or design, some on forged documents. They changed their names. Those who remained behind were consumed by the Holocaust. By the time Linda Grant began speculating on her roots, only her mother was left ... and her mother's memories were colander secure ... they were leaking away.

It is a sense of loss to which I can relate: I'm illegitimate; I lost half my roots before I was born. My mother died suddenly - no wasting disease for her. But I'd never talked to her, asked her the sorts of questions I wish I had. How many of us do ask the questions? How many of us do take the time to inquire, to treat our parents' and grandparents' lives and histories as significant?

Linda Grant, and countless thousands of others, have to endure watching a loved one ebb away. It's as if they fade, become invisible.

This is a book on which you can hang your heart and emotions. It is never clawingly sentimental. It does not explore the practicalities of coping. But it does ask essential questions about how we value ourselves and our families: our identities, our 'selfs', are built from memories, are cemented together by memories and personal histories.

You do not need to be touched by dementia to find this book valuable. It is, quite simply, a beautiful book about family, about family history, and about the discovery of self.

Slightly depressing book by a brilliant writer, 25 Aug 2002
Linda Grant is a fine author and, I think, a brilliant writer, but, unlike other reviewers, I did find this book mildly depressing - perhaps because there was no happy outcome for any of the figures in the book - indeed no happy outcome would be possible.

Grant's confusion about the veracity of her past - were the stories, handed down oral traditions, about the various members of her family and incidents of her childhood - true? - interpretations according to the teller? - utterly fabricated? was an interesting angle which must chime with many of us - how can we ever know the truth of much of what we are told about our background and childhood, especially when, as in Grant's case, there is an almost pathological need in her mother to present things in the most acceptable (to herself) light and not "tell everyone our business".

I empathised with Grant's anger and frustration with the Social Services and their appalling 'Catch 22' policies, and with her frustrated irritation with her demented mother - a mother, moreover, who has not been a great mother or even a particularly loving one and who is consequently difficult for Grant herself to love. I appreciated her honesty about this, but found Margaret Forster's novel on a similar theme, "Have the Men had Enough?" more moving.

very humane , very sane and not least depressing., 26 Jun 1999
Why is this book such a success? whether one is interested in dementia or not, families and this one in particular, there is something right about this book. So seemingly effortless is it's fluency, it's grasp of detail, that the impression given is not so much of partial human artifact and all the artifices associated with it, but of self-authentication and integrity. there is little or no ingratiating embellishment so easy when matters of deep emotion are being dealt with.

Scenes recalling the homes for the elderly, old childhood haunts, childhood routes through cities, all these, just ARE, manifest in the present tense of her writing.

No rancour or bitterness for the way things are with an ill and difficult mother, but a calm recognition of our own histories as determining ourselves, the rotten bits included.

Never have i read a book so calm, yet so full of lively recall not shamefully damaging nor confessional and there are enough of those sorts of books. a truely fascinating retelling.

Hilarious, heart-rending account a must-read, 05 Nov 1998
This is the best book I've read in years. It deals with the descent of Grant's mother into the oblivion that is dementia, and the nightmare that is getting her rehoused. Moreover, it is a savage indictment of the Grant family's re-invention and bid to escape from its Jewish roots. This is a woman who knows "mental illness" at first hand, and boy, does she compel the reader. Had me screaming with laughter and shedding tears galore. GET IT.

An inspiring book on mind & body, 31 Jan 1999
An inspiring book on mind & body When I first read the book, I could not put it down. My only adverse comments are that the brilliant supporting researches which are quoted in the book could have been referenced similar to a research publication. Then it could gain creditibility with the medical and scientific community. Neverthless it is a great book for liberating people abilities. Well written and a joy to read. --This text refers to the paperback edition of this title

BEEN THERE FORGOT THE TEE SHIRT!, 05 Dec 2007
Shelly`s book is essential reading for anyone who has trailed aound the house looking for lost keys or come downstairs for something, having to go back upstairs to remember what it was! A funny book full of helpful hints to survive the mid and later life crisises.

Mick Drake author of the comic novel All`s Well at Wellwithoute

An odd little book, but entertaining , 24 Nov 2007
I bought this for my parents although, ironically, the print is rather small and I'm concerned that they may struggle with it! I started browsing through it myself and was hooked. The book is a complete hotchpotch of ideas and styles. There are quotes from politicians, writers, comedians and actors. One-liners, jokes, anecdotes and more serious advice. There is no over-riding structure, it just seems to ramble on in whichever direction feels good at the time.

It only took a couple of hours to read, so is not great value for money. Some of the advice comes across as a little obvious or patronising and feels a little out of place in what I took to be a humorous coffee table/bathroom book. There are a lot of well-known quotes in here which may again make you feel that you've wasted your money. It seems that the writer has a particular liking for certain comedians as well who are quoted bizarrely often.

Overall though it does take a light-hearted look at the effects of ageing (which it assumes occur in those turning 40, not just over retirement age). So not a bad little stocking filler.

very droll, 03 Apr 2006
we've all had them! there are some very good funny stories and quotes.. and the top tips are very inspirational.. .. nice to have a cheery book about this subject!

An honest and witty account about being a "certain age" !!, 15 Jul 2008
I ordered this, received it and read it cover to cover within a day and a half. What a great book! Aimed at those ladies who have woken up one day and realised that they have entered the "twilight" zone of no longer being young and not yet being old but just starting to see those dreaded signs of ageing creeping in....

Helen Frith-Powell gives a very informative, witty and honest account of various anti-ageing products and treatments out there...some useful, some scary and some downright mad! In the name of journalism and for the greater good of woman-kind (yeah, right Helena!), she undergoes several treatments and procedures herself with varying degrees of success. I particularly enjoyed her account of those treatments where she knew her husband would kill her when he found out but went ahead and did them anyway!!

There were also some very insightful remarks made by Helena about attitudes to ageing, which I'm sure most women would relate to and a few cautionary tales about how easy it is to take things too far and when to stop.

Okay, so this book is aimed at middle/upper class ladies in their 40's who have money to spend but so what? In these dreary times of credit crunches, belt tightening and general doom and gloom, it was a most enjoyable, funny and refreshing read.

As a 43 lady myself, I take my hat off to Helena for not wanting to "give up" just because she's getting older. Let's make the best of ourselves every day, after all, you're a long time dead....

Tantalizing story every woman will be glad she read!, 14 May 2008
Like most women, I am most curious to know the true story of all the cosmetic "wonder claims" from the best anti-wrinkle cream to how Botox "really works" to even plastic surgery without having to actually go through the expensive journey, myself. And really how effective are those natural methods offered that claim I can look younger and firmer without the high tech experience?
Helena has courageously and provocatively taken this tour for me and shared her experience in her new book. She has been able to make me laugh while also scaring me a bit on her journey through the fascinating world of anti-ageing. I actually found myself unable to put the book down from time to time in anticipation of whether or not Helena was going to actually go through an invasive procedure or not?! Such a great read! Her ability to share her process as she visits the most expensive and glamorous salons in the world to sharing the more natural processes for looking and staying younger kept me intrigued throughout the whole entire book.
I have to confess that I am Carolyn - one the people of whom Helena speaks about in her book that offers a more natural, viable alternative to fighting ageing, but this has not deterred me in any way from wanting to know more. I highly recommend this book to any of us wanting a glimpse of what it's like to explore the full spectrum of possibilities offered, from an insider's journey through the "land of anti-ageing" alternatives.


Fantastic book!, 21 Apr 2008
I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it. It's a very well-researched guide to the full range of anti-ageing treatments on the market as the author travels the globe in her quest to bring the reader the best information in the fight against ageing. I found myself laughing out loud whilst reading this as it is highly amusing as well as being an uplifting read. The author's trademark warmth and humour run throughout this book and, like her earlier books, it is not to be missed.

Funny and Informative; yoga will never be the same again!, 02 Apr 2008
I ordered this book because I love her blog and thoroughly enjoyed her other books especially Two Lipsticks and a Lover. While that dealt with Frenchwomen and how to look like and act one, this one is all about how to stay young-looking. The author has behaved rather like a method actor getting herself into all sorts of strange situations in her quest for eternal youth but comes out the other end (relatively) unscathed. This is a kind of 'everything you wanted to know about ageing but were afraid to ask' book. If you want to know how to avoid looking like an old crow without having to test everything yourself then this is the book for you. The information is accessible and as with Two Lipsticks and a Lover the author has managed to keep her sense of humour throughout. A very funny and informative read.

Not working really sounds like a great joy, 10 Jul 2008
I love this book. You can pick it up and read any chapter and feel energised. I found it cathartic and uplifting and would recommend it to anyone whether about to retire, or merely wanting to step down the stress ladder and get life's priorities right.

There are many books about down-sizing ones life but this is well written, humourous, and great fun.

Amusing, wise, easy to dip into informative book., 13 Jun 2002
For anyone driven to work hard due to overconditioning in the work ethic this book is a must. The Chapter "Life Of O'Rielly" emphasises the stresses of modern life and how, with a different atttitude these can be avoided. For those about to retire this book is a must, however it is a good read for anyone in work who wants to alter their lifestyle. Zalinsky writes infomatively on many subjects, from using one's brain creatively to avoiding negative people. This book does not advocate idleness instead it gives pointers to enjoying life. The author discovered the joy of not working when he lost his job. After a period of despondancy, he discovered that a more liesurly pace of life has much to offer and a lot of money is not always necessary.

Average at best, 10 Aug 1999
There are a lot of great books that deal with creativity. This is not one of them. Average, at best, it might fit the bill is someone was looking for a superfluous treatment of creativity.

Big on inspiration, little on practical advice., 07 Jun 1999
This book would be much more effective if it gave practical advice like 'Your Money Or Your Life'. There is little advice on how you get from one financial situation to the other and assumes perfect health (no reliance on health insurance)and diverse talents (able to get money only as needed). If you are in less perfect health, definitely give this book to a younger, healthier person.

One of Top 3 books on business I've ever read, 28 Dec 1998
Even though the Joy of Not Working is technically not a business book, I'd lump it in that category nonetheless. I've read what seems like a gazillion books and I have to rate this little jewel as one of the three best business/lifestyle books I've ever read (the other two are Hawkins' Growing a Business and Lancaster's Secret Money Machine)--it's filled with wit and humor and tons of little tips. I've read it three times and Zelinski seems to add stuff between each reading. Enlighted guy!

More Pieces Than Bits, 23 Aug 2008
William Leith is a journalist and the author of the bestselling book on over-consumption called, The hungry Years, in which his addictions to food, alcohol and everything else were torn apart in minute detail to great acclaim.

I will confess that I had never heard of William Leith nor his previous book until I read several other reviews of his new book, Bits Of Me Are Falling Apart. Immediately I was fasinated to read this book. Firstly, I'm about Leith's age and it sounded as though we shared some common ground in the fact we both feel at that time in life when you are more old than young and things are never going to get better. And secondly, the author of the book I had just bought lived just down the road from me via a couple of villages, so we were off to a good start.

This book could have been written for the fortysomething bloke who may feel washed up and in despair as to what to do next before time runs out. But it is a book for anyone who enjoys reading what a skilled writer can do when they wish to weave their web in a casual and direct way. Of course, Leith has had years of perfecting his art, and his style has been honed to taking the trival and everyday and turning it into wriiten gold.

Leith begins by waking up on a mattress in his office and from then on we are treated to just over two hundred pages of a day in the life of William Leith and his thoughts on just about everything for the banking system to the state of his left shoulder. This is done in an almost rambling, stream of conciousness style. His body is falling apart, cells are conflicting with each other causing everything to go wrong, and this in turn is Leith's metaphor for what is happening in society: everything is falling apart.

From the start Leith tells us all about his particular falling apart and I found he sounded more like a sixty-seven year old suffering from hypochondria rather than a forty-seven year old with the same complaint. Leith must have played hard to end up in this condition and he seems preoccupied with all types of illnesses which he may or may not get.

This of course all adds to the writer's arsenal of material which fellow journalist, the late Jeffrey Bernard used so successfully in his Low Life columns in the Spectator magazine. Rather than Bernard, I immediately thought of Simon Gray's diaries when reading Leith's thoughts on the human condition and the way he so brilliantly slides off his subject and on to another and another. If Leith is very, very clever at this then Simon Gray was the ultimate master of it, chewing and mulling over words, paragraphs and then almost throwing them away and then catching them again.

Leith can't quite take away Simon Gray's crown with this book nor has he intended to; he is far too good a writer for that. There is a certain take on a subject that may leave some readers feeling cold and there is a lot of bleakness here as well. Leith's day has the feeling of just coming out of rehab and having to face the outside world again without the booze and drugs in a nervous fractured way.

But if like me you want someone to sum what semi-middle age is all about then they will do no worst than to investigate Leith's thoughts on the subject. I'm glad to have found William Leith but I'm not sure if I like his world. This book is at times too near the truth, and that is why it deserves to be a best-seller.

Funny, 18 Oct 2008
This story is highly entertaining, witty and full of life. A great book to enlighten people whose lives have been touched by vascular dementia.

Memory as Bereavement, 26 Feb 2004
This is a beautifully written book, exploring the consequences of loss - the gradual loss of memory because of illness, the loss of time, of the past, of meaning. Linda Grant's mother had a particular form of dementia - Multi-Infarct Dementia - but this is a book which will have a meaning for anyone touched by Alzheimer's.

This is an exercise in archaeology - in taking people for granted, in wanting to be a teenager, to become an adult in your own right, to escape from your parents. It's only when you lose them you begin to ask the questions you wish had recognised while they were around. Roots. Identity. Where did the family come from, what was their history, how did they cope, how did they live?

Linda Grant's family were immigrants, fleeing from oppression in 19th century Europe. They reached England by accident or design, some on forged documents. They changed their names. Those who remained behind were consumed by the Holocaust. By the time Linda Grant began speculating on her roots, only her mother was left ... and her mother's memories were colander secure ... they were leaking away.

It is a sense of loss to which I can relate: I'm illegitimate; I lost half my roots before I was born. My mother died suddenly - no wasting disease for her. But I'd never talked to her, asked her the sorts of questions I wish I had. How many of us do ask the questions? How many of us do take the time to inquire, to treat our parents' and grandparents' lives and histories as significant?

Linda Grant, and countless thousands of others, have to endure watching a loved one ebb away. It's as if they fade, become invisible.

This is a book on which you can hang your heart and emotions. It is never clawingly sentimental. It does not explore the practicalities of coping. But it does ask essential questions about how we value ourselves and our families: our identities, our 'selfs', are built from memories, are cemented together by memories and personal histories.

You do not need to be touched by dementia to find this book valuable. It is, quite simply, a beautiful book about family, about family history, and about the discovery of self.

Slightly depressing book by a brilliant writer, 25 Aug 2002
Linda Grant is a fine author and, I think, a brilliant writer, but, unlike other reviewers, I did find this book mildly depressing - perhaps because there was no happy outcome for any of the figures in the book - indeed no happy outcome would be possible.

Grant's confusion about the veracity of her past - were the stories, handed down oral traditions, about the various members of her family and incidents of her childhood - true? - interpretations according to the teller? - utterly fabricated? was an interesting angle which must chime with many of us - how can we ever know the truth of much of what we are told about our background and childhood, especially when, as in Grant's case, there is an almost pathological need in her mother to present things in the most acceptable (to herself) light and not "tell everyone our business".

I empathised with Grant's anger and frustration with the Social Services and their appalling 'Catch 22' policies, and with her frustrated irritation with her demented mother - a mother, moreover, who has not been a great mother or even a particularly loving one and who is consequently difficult for Grant herself to love. I appreciated her honesty about this, but found Margaret Forster's novel on a similar theme, "Have the Men had Enough?" more moving.

very humane , very sane and not least depressing., 26 Jun 1999
Why is this book such a success? whether one is interested in dementia or not, families and this one in particular, there is something right about this book. So seemingly effortless is it's fluency, it's grasp of detail, that the impression given is not so much of partial human artifact and all the artifices associated with it, but of self-authentication and integrity. there is little or no ingratiating embellishment so easy when matters of deep emotion are being dealt with.

Scenes recalling the homes for the elderly, old childhood haunts, childhood routes through cities, all these, just ARE, manifest in the present tense of her writing.

No rancour or bitterness for the way things are with an ill and difficult mother, but a calm recognition of our own histories as determining ourselves, the rotten bits included.

Never have i read a book so calm, yet so full of lively recall not shamefully damaging nor confessional and there are enough of those sorts of books. a truely fascinating retelling.

Hilarious, heart-rending account a must-read, 05 Nov 1998
This is the best book I've read in years. It deals with the descent of Grant's mother into the oblivion that is dementia, and the nightmare that is getting her rehoused. Moreover, it is a savage indictment of the Grant family's re-invention and bid to escape from its Jewish roots. This is a woman who knows "mental illness" at first hand, and boy, does she compel the reader. Had me screaming with laughter and shedding tears galore. GET IT.

An inspiring book on mind & body, 31 Jan 1999
An inspiring book on mind & body When I first read the book, I could not put it down. My only adverse comments are that the brilliant supporting researches which are quoted in the book could have been referenced similar to a research publication. Then it could gain creditibility with the medical and scientific community. Neverthless it is a great book for liberating people abilities. Well written and a joy to read. --This text refers to the paperback edition of this title

Excellent reference book; buy an extra to share with friends, 12 Jul 1999
This book has made a difference in my life! I have read several yoga books, but "The New Yoga for People Over 50" by Suza Francina spoke to my special needs. If you are seeking answers for questions relating to menopause, osteoporosis, healthy heart, etc., seek no more. This book provides answers. Her chapter on feet and knees is extremely helpful, providing the groundwork for specific needs. I keep this book handy as an excellent reference manual, both for