This review is written with thanks to The Pigeonhole for the opportunity to read and review How To Age Disgracefully.

Blurb:

When age makes you invisible, secrets are easier to hide

Daphne knows that age is just a number. She also knows that society no longer pays her any attention – something she’s happy to exploit to help her hide a somewhat chequered past.

But finding herself alone on her 70^th birthday, with only her plants to talk to and neighbours to stalk online, she decides she needs some friends. Joining a Senior Citizen’s Social Club she’s horrified at the expectation she’ll spend her time enduring gentle crafting activities. Thankfully, the other members – including a failed actor addicted to shoplifting and a prolific yarn-bomber – agree.

After a tragic accident, the local council threaten to close the club – but they have underestimated the wrong group of pensioners…and with the help of a teenage dad and a geriatric, orphaned dog, the incongruous gang set out to prove it.

As long as their pasts don’t catch up with them first…

Review:

I don’t use star ratings on my blog but I gave How To Age Disgracefully five stars on Goodreads and I would absolutely give it more if I could. Clare Pooley has created some wonderful characters and I had a blast getting to know them all. The central characters, Daphne, Art, Ziggy and Lydia, all have their own chapters in the novel and this means the reader can learn more about how they came to be in the situations in which they find themselves in the novel. I warmed to them all really quickly and I had my fingers crossed that everything would work out for them.

It’s quite rare that the characters from the demographics of Daphne, Art, Ziggy and Lydia are portrayed in novels, yet Clare Pooley has brought them to the forefront of their society and encourages us to think about them differently to the stereotypes with which we may be familiar. She writes with humour and frankness, and I love that whilst she recognises their vulnerabilities, she makes sure that they have agency and determination. It’s almost inconceivable that they would be friendly with Ziggy, a teenage single father, but I love their relationship with him.

The novel begins with the characters travelling on a minibus, being stopped by the police. Many of the characters admit to previous crimes and I was intrigued to find out more about each character’s back story. Through these stories, Clare Pooley is able to explore issues such as domestic violence, drug abuse and mental health issues. She does this in an extremely thought provoking and sensitive way and I finished this novel with a lot to think about.

How To Age Disgracefully is available from Amazon.