No need! You’re right - there’s no need to conform to what retirement should or shouldn’t be, or agree that’s it’s either awful or brilliant. It’s subjective and nuanced.

No, the article isn’t about that. It’s about retirement not as losing one’s identity but about replacing work with new identities, chosen not imposed.

There’s a great Substack piece I read recently by The Old Grey Thinker about how the traditional concept of retirement is longer fit for purpose. It can be hard, but not in the way you might think.

‘Goodbye, Captain. I’ll never forget that time when you painted me like one of your French girls.’ #GirlsOwnCC @girlsown.bsky.social

The Crow Lady tried hard to fit in with the townsfolk though her long black wings and claw hands rather gave her away. But placing a clooty dumpling on her head was a cunning distraction #GirlsOwnCC

*A blush crept up her cheek and she clenched her jaw to suppress a grin* He has, and once you’ve been made aware of it you see it everywhere! Terrific lesson in avoiding elaborate and unnecessary showing. Love Harry!

The latest one on Jane Austen is brilliant too.

The most annoying/insulting thing: when organisations respond to a request for editorial comment as if you’re trying to sell them an ad: ‘oh no thank you, we have other ways of reaching our customers’.

One of my favourites is reading someone described as a ‘copper-bottomed ocean-going chateau-bottled weapons-grade ****’

Good luck!

Then it would be fine to email and ask her to be a bit more specific. On the other hand, an agent who just says ‘change it’ without offering suggestions may not be great to work with anyway, so maybe no loss!

It would have been better if it had started with the par beginning ‘One Friday night’. Other than that I quite like it. When she describes the food, she does it well. But I’m surprised she’s 40. It reads like a review in an undergraduate magazine.

👍