Bloomer

Summary

It is daunting to grow old in a time and place that does not value old people, but the age group known as Boomers should not be so easily dismissed. They marched against the Vietnam War and were the first generation to be liberated by the contraceptive pill from the fear of unwanted pregnancy. Their teenage years were fuelled by protest songs and peace-and-love idealism, and many are still engaged in forms of activism.

Framed by the turning of the seasons in her small suburban garden, Carol Lefevre's Bloomer documents the year in which she turned seventy. Memoir threads through meditations on aspects of ageing, from its hidden grief and potential for loneliness to our relationship with the past and with our own mortality.

In this gorgeous, optimistic and eloquent coming-of-old-age book, Boomers emerge as Bloomers – people not at the end of things but still on their way, ready to embrace a late-life flourishing.

'The idea at the heart of this excellent book is that growing older is an opportunity for renewal and growth. It eschews stereotypes and trite representations of positive ageing and offers us something more reflective and meaningful. Beautifully written and full of wisdom, this is a book for all ages.' PIP WILLIAMS

'Bloomer is at once a revelatory meditation on ageing and an exploration of the place and power of gardens in a richly inhabited life. For long moments, Lefevre's book, like a beloved garden, makes time slow in moments of contemplation. Bloomer is a book to be savoured.' LUCY TRELOAR

'A tender, unflinching palimpsest of the layering force of time as it flows through every cell of our being. Beautiful. Poetic. A meditation on turning grey, learning to be old and the art of embracing every age we are privileged to live. A remembrance of wonder and precious moments, this is a necessary book.' DONNA WARD