Happy Old Me How to Live a Long Life, and Really Enjoy it by Hunter Davies

Overview

Happy Old Me: How to Live a Long Life, and Really Enjoy It is a candid, engaging reflection on ageing from acclaimed writer Hunter Davies. Drawing on personal experience, observation, and research, Davies explores what it truly means to grow older with contentment, curiosity, and resilience.

Rather than offering rigid rules or unrealistic promises, this book presents a balanced and humane approach to longevity, focusing on enjoyment as much as endurance.

Focus

Davies examines the everyday realities of ageing, from health and habits to relationships, work, and attitude. With warmth and honesty, he considers how small choices shape long term wellbeing and how embracing change can lead to unexpected pleasures.

The book blends practical advice with memoir, allowing readers to learn from both lived experience and thoughtful reflection. Throughout, Davies’s voice remains reassuring, humorous, and deeply relatable.

Key Ideas

• Ageing as a positive life stage

• The importance of routine, movement, and curiosity

• Relationships, friendship, and purpose

• Mental wellbeing and adaptability

• Enjoyment over perfection

Themes

• Longevity and happiness

• Acceptance and resilience

• Purpose and balance

• Living well rather than perfectly

• Optimism grounded in reality

About the Author

Hunter Davies is a respected British author and journalist, known for his biographies, memoirs, and non fiction writing. His work combines insight, accessibility, and warmth, making complex or sensitive subjects feel approachable and human.

Why You’ll Love This Book

If you are seeking a positive, realistic perspective on growing older, Happy Old Me offers encouragement without pressure. Hunter Davies writes with wit and compassion, reminding readers that a long life is most meaningful when it is actively enjoyed.

This is a book that reassures, entertains, and inspires — a companion for anyone interested in living well at any age.

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Keywords

Hunter Davies book, Happy Old Me, ageing well, longevity and happiness, later life living, lifestyle non fiction, positive ageing, wellbeing book

Publishers Synopsis

‘If anyone knows how to be happy and old, it’s Hunter. Read a page before breakfast and two at night, preferably with food’- Michael Palin.

‘As long as I’m alive, I’ll be with her, and she’ll be with me.’ Hunter Davies on Margaret Forster.

Happy Old Me is a moving yet uplifting account of one year in Hunter Davies’ life, navigating bereavement and finding hope in the future.

On 8th February 2016, Margaret Forster lost her life to cancer of the spine. The days that followed for her husband, Hunter Davies, were carried out on autopilot: arrangements to be made, family and friends to be contacted. But how do you cope after you have lost your loved one? How do you carry on?

As Hunter navigates what it means to be alone again after 55 years of marriage, coping with bereavement and being elderly (he still doesn’t believe he is), he shares his wisdom and lessons he has learnt living alone again. Revealing his emotional journey over the course of one year, as well as the often ignored practical implications of becoming widowed, he learns that, ultimately, bricks and mortar may change but the memories will remain.

Part memoir, part self-help, Happy Old Me is a fitting, heart-felt tribute to the love of his life and a surprisingly amusing and informative book about an age, and stage in life, which we might all reach someday. The third book in Hunter Davies’ much-loved memoir series, which includes The Co-Op’s Got Bananas and A Life in the Day.