ABSTRACT
These autobiographical ramblings aim to make two points about ageing. The fi rst is that ageing is not a phenomenon that starts on a specifi c date-when one retires or reaches three score years and ten, for example-but a continuous process of change. Different activities reach their natural peak at different times. Female gymnasts appear to be over the hill by the time they reach puberty; mathematicians are said to do their most original work before they reach their 30s; great conductors seem to go on until they virtually fall off the rostrum. I assume, however, that ageing gymnasts fi nd other sources of fulfi lment, just as ageing rugby players fi nd less robust ways of spending Saturday afternoons.
