Book review: In Your Prime by India Knight

Have you seen those adverts that say they can tell you how not be poor when you retire? Then you read the small print, and the trick is to have £250,000 to start with.

I've just read a book that's a bit like that.

As I've mentioned before, going through middle-age sometimes feels like being in a foreign country without a map. There aren't many books around to help.

There's a new book out now that is not much help at all. For a start, it's not written by one of us. India Knight was 48 at the time of writing and not even menopausal. So why does she think she is qualified to tell us how to run our lives? She says the book is written for women "from about forty to about sixty-five". So why should a 65-year-old woman take advice from a 48-year-old? Because she writes columns for a right-wing national newspaper?

And as you'd expect from a Sunday Times writer, its all a bit jolly hockysticks. The main message seems to be: "The age thing is up to you" and we can all have a nice time if we listen to her advice.

That isn't strictly true. We can, as the subtitle has it, be "older, wiser and happier" but it helps if you have health and some money. A lot of money, actually.

Let's look at the chapter on Beauty and Maintenance. To stay looking nice, you need the following (and, yes, there is a LOT of product placement in this book):

A pedicure: the one she recommends is £125
A Marks and Spencer Foot File: at least, this one's only a fiver.
Laser eye treatment: hers cost about £10,000
Kerastase Soleil CC Creme: £15
Potion 9 by Sebastian: £18 (I've never heard of any of these things, either: I'm a Boots girl)
White Hot Hair shampoo: £12
Philips Sonicare electric toothbrush: £50
Janina whitening toothpaste: £55 (yes, that's what it said on the Amazon website)
A made-to-measure tooth bleaching tray: £250
A dental hygienist: who knows?
Regenerate toothpaste: £10
A haircut at John Frieda: they're not saying
Botox: she's given a web address for the people she goes to, but they're not saying either
Armani foundation: £39
By Terry eyeliner: £25
Armani Cheek Fabric Blush: £34
Studio 10 Contour Kit: £30
Urban Decay Eye Primer: £18
Charlotte Tilbury mascara: £22
Creme de la Mer facecream: £105 (or £350 for a large one)
Secret Camouflage concealer: £26
Alpha-H moisturiser: £29.

And that's before you get to buying clothes. Or her diet book.Or her list of essentials in the penultimate chapter, Living Well (good handbag, big TV, etc).

I'm glad I didn't pay £16.99 for the book. I got it from the library.

Bring on the New Year. I'm not afraid.

Every year for most of my adult life I've spent New Year's Eve saying: 'Well, I'm glad that's over, let's hope the next one is better.' And 365 days later, there I was again saying 'Well, that was shit, I'm glad it's over.'

I didn't do that this time. In 2014 I was unavoidably closer to 60 than 50, and I don't want to wish my life away any more.

Last night I watched Jools Holland's Hootenanny, like all the other middle-aged people too sensible (or scared) to bother going out. And I scoffed like all the others. Because we all know it's recorded in November. Because of the unimaginative, middle-of-the-road programming. And because it's fun to take the piss.

But when Wilko Johnson came on, I couldn't scoff, because no-one expected him to still be here. And when Jools asked him the usual inane questions about hopes for the new year, he said, basically: Who cares? I'm still here.

I'm still here, and I want to enjoy life because it's too short not to. I'm one of those people who have always found life a bit scary, but I think I'm getting used to it. And, as they say, it's better than the alternative.

2014 wasn't the best of years. It brought pain and struggle to some people I care about. And in the wider world, there was horrific cruelty and injustice, as there always has been and probably always will be. But I am sure that nearly everyone I know is kind, and many of them are idealistic, and I have to believe that that's what is normal.

I felt sadness and despair and anger during 2014, because anyone who notices the world has to feel those things. I also had some happiness and fun and freedom.

2014 was the year I counted my blessings. Every time I remembered I don't have a boss any more. Last year I came across this quote: 'I can’t pretend that freelancing gives you a secure future, because no job gives you that. But it will give you a chance to live life on your terms.' That's my inspiration for 2015.

I'm still scared, and probably always will be, but that's OK. I'm always one job away from being skint, and it could all fall apart any time, but so far I have survived. Life is scary, but it's a scary adventure.

There were changes in 2014. Mainly, it was the year I started feeling my age. My mother had a landmark birthday, and gathered the family together, and I felt things shift. I and my siblings are not the young ones any more. And when I caught sight of my mother's reflection, I saw my grandmother. And now I'm afraid to look at my own reflection.

2014 was the year I became aware of things I can't do any more. I've had arthritis for years. Ten years ago, they told me: come back when you're ready for a hip replacement. I think that might be this year. The alternative is admitting I'll never dance again, and I don't want that.

That's one of things that scare me about 2015. Another one is the election. There's a lot to worry about, if I let myself. I'm not going to stop being angry: there are times when that feels like a duty. But I'm not going to despair, either.  I'm trying to live life one step at a time.

In 2014, things happened to make me revisit my past. I went to a reunion, and after that I started making new friends. It was good to get to know people my own age. The experience made me look back on the person I used to be, and I realised that I've wasted too much of my life being unhappy. I'm not going to let that happen again.

Bring on 2015. It might to be easy. But if I can have some fun, and freedom, and love, that will be enough. If you're reading this, I wish that for you too.

This advert will make you cry. And the last 30 seconds will make you spit with anger.

We are Making a New World (1918) by Paul Nash, war artist. From collection of the Imperial War Museum (available to share for non-commercial use).

I think it might be Children in Need day today. There was someone in a teddy bear suit waving at me when I did the shopping this morning.

Today we all have to feel sad about unfortunate children. On Tuesday, we all had to feel sad about dead soldiers. Next week it will be something else. At the risk of appearing cynical, count me out.

I've never had much time for being told to do or think something just because everyone else is doing or thinking it on the same day. I have my own charities that I think are important and I don't go on about them. I won't be bullied into communal sentimentality.

Don't get me wrong, I would never criticise what soldiers went through and still go through. But I was brought up believing that remembrance was about saying 'Never again': these days, that seems to have gone out of the window. I heard a BBC news reporter on Sunday saying that it was about remembering the people who had given their lives in the past and those who would do so in the future. Apart from being paradoxical (you can't remember something that hasn't happened yet), surely that's missing the point? It's assuming that the killing will go on. It's making me, by wearing a poppy, complicit in the assumption that war is inevitable.

I don't want any part of that.

When I heard that people were knitting poppies for Remembrance Day, it all started to feel a bit theme park. Like baking Pudsey cakes. But these cosy, communal feelings don't have anything to do with the reality of war, as Jonathan Jones reminded us in the Guardian.

And they won't let it go. We've got the First World War centenary stuff for another four years, and everyone is cashing in. The other night I saw a TV advert for a travel firm. They're doing trips to First World War battlefields. 'In the footsteps of heroes TM' it said. Yes, they've trademarked the name.

Now Sainsbury's are at it, too. They want the moral high ground so they've gone into partnership with the British Legion (note: other charities are available). They want to win the war of the Christmas adverts so they've made a video about the famous WW1 'Christmas truce'. And yes, it is a well-made film and I did get a lump in my throat watching it. But I know when I'm being manipulated, and I don't like it. And I kept wondering what the punchline would be. Three and a half minutes in, there it was: 'Christmas is for sharing'.

Is that the only message you can get from what happened back then? Is that what those millions of people died for? So Sainsbury's can sell more chocolate in 2014?

I don't think I'm the one who's being cynical here.