‘People assume that if you are female and over 70 you are oblivious to men’s good looks. No one would blink if a 99-year-old man wearing an oxygen mask mentioned a good-looking woman …’

Most of us would like to live to an old age, but few of us actually want to be old. In this disarming, intimate and self-deprecating collection of vignettes about ageing, Lily Brett gives us snapshots of her life in New York. After avoiding a large dog that turns out to be a fire hydrant, and mistaking a tall, grey-haired woman for her husband, Lily has to concede that her ophthalmologist is right - she does need cataract surgery.

She’s transfixed by a speed-dating dinner at a local cafe, and is told they also have speed-dating dinners for seniors. In the crowded Apple store, in Soho, two young Apple assistants decide it will take both of them to help her.