Tom Kirkwood is one of the former breed but reckons that more can be done to lighten the workload of the latter. Even so he thinks that expectation of life will go on increasing. Soon telegrams from the Queen will have to be restricted to those who make 110 - and so we go on. The oldest reliably documented age at death is that of Jeanne Calment from Arles, France, who could remember Vincent Van Gogh. She died in 1997 at the age of 122.
Obituary writers encourage competitiveness, too, in a mild way.
Not mentioned in this book is the rumour that Madame Calment stopped smoking in old age but then defiantly took it up again, a pattern, albeit anecdotal, that sits uncomfortably with Kirkwood's preventive thesis. But no one can argue convincingly for prevention until some myths about ageing have been dealt with. Our genes do get us in the end, but indirectly, via their sense of priorities. Time of our Lives is an optimistic book published at a time when requiring old people to provide for themselves is the new political correctness. The sort of assistance from which Kirkwood's proposed preventative regimens would benefit is simple and cheap.