BGS Book Club #geribookclub

Love settling down with a good book?

The next BGS Twitter Book Club will be held on Tuesday 13 July at 8pm (UK time) with the aim of bringing together anyone involved or interested in issues relating to older adults by discussing a range of fiction and non-fiction works.

Whether you work with older adults, care for them, or are approaching advancing years yourself, we invite you to join a lively discussion around themes such as the representation of older adults, cognition, death and dying, and societal attitudes towards ageing. We will be hosting a meeting every other month between 8 pm and 9 pm (UK time) online, with advance notice of each chosen book so that you have time to read, and then join in. Our discussion will be followed up by a BGS blog post summarising the key points so that if you miss out, you can still see what others thought.

For old age is respected only if it defends itself, maintains its rights, submits to no one, and rules over its domain until its last breath - Cicero

Our next book for discussion will be Dr Lucy Pollock's 'The Book About Getting Older (for people who don't want to talk about it)'. Lucy trained in medicine at Cambridge and at Bart's Hospital, and worked as a junior doctor in East London before moving to Somerset, where since 2001 she has been a consultant geriatrician.

Many of us are living to a very great age. But how do we give those we love, and eventually ourselves, long lives that are as happy and healthy as possible? Lucy's book gives us answers to the questions we can voice - and those that we can't. A long life should be embraced and celebrated, but it's not all easy. Yet even the most challenging situation can be helped by the right conversation.

“The most important book about the second half of your life you'll ever read. I wish everyone in the UK could be under Dr Lucy's care, but this is the next best thing" - Sandi Toksvig OBE

We will be live-tweeting the bookclub from @gerisoc, using the hashtag #geribookclub, on Tuesday 13th July between 8 pm and 9 pm (UK time). Join us!