Surprise Me

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‘Twenty-year-olds are three times more likely to reach 100 than their grandparents, and twice as likely as their parents.’

Office for National Statistics Report, 2011

‘The dramatic speed at which life expectancy is changing means that we need to radically rethink our perceptions about our later lives …’

Sir Steven Webb, UK Minister for Pensions 2010–15

PROLOGUE

I have this secret little vocabulary for my husband. Words I’ve invented, just to describe him. I’ve never even told him about them: they just pop into my head, now and then. Like …

Scrubcious: the adorable way he scrunches up his face when he’s confused, his eyebrows akimbo, his gaze imploring, as if to say: ‘Explain!’ Dan doesn’t like to be confused. He likes everything straight. Clear. Out in the open.

Tentery: that taut, defensive way he behaves whenever the subject of my father comes up in conversation. (He thinks I don’t notice.)

Shoffed: when life has turned round and punched him in the face so hard, his breath is literally taken away for a moment.

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