Taking as his title Byron's famous description of what life is (a mere "summer of a dormouse"), John Mortimer describes what it's like to be 75 but feel 11. He has all the afflictions that his father had at this age, but retains all his youthful enthusiasms. Mortimer describes the last couple of years which involved plenty of hilarious public duties, like chairing the committee to decide who should go on the empty plinth in Trafalgar Square, but also private matters like having to be in a wheelchair at glamorous New Labour parties. A paradoxically cheerful and cheering book about growing old gracefully.
