The Golden Rule: Lessons in living from a doctor of ageing

In a society obsessed with staying young, how can we age with confidence?

Today, we are living longer lives, and have choices now as never before about how we will age.

What will make us happy?

What are we frightened of, and what might allay those fears?

What changes, made right now, will help us to flourish as we age?

This book contains lessons Lucy Pollock has learned from thirty years of working with older people and those close to them. It looks at problems that can be fixed with tests and tablets, and problems that require a different sort of medicine. Lucy explains what she has been taught about loss, about impossible families, about becoming older without children, and the important things she has learned about sexuality, race, love and living with uncertainty.

The Golden Rule sets out guiding principles we can all try to live by, in the hope that together we can bring about positive change, and all benefit from a kinder, more compassionate society.

Here is how we may meet our futures with optimism and confidence.

Lucy Pollock has long been grateful for the guidance offered by an early boss, who hoped she would not be offended if he suggested she should specialise in geriatric medicine. Having trained at Cambridge and Bart’s Hospital, Lucy is now a Consultant Geriatrician in Somerset. She has been working with older people for 30 years, and has learned useful things about life from a great many older people.