Eleven interviews with Irish people all aged over 75 are presented here: from an 82-year old in Tipperary who still lives in the house where he was born to an ex-High Court judge. All walks of life are caught candidly on the page. Eamon Kelly talks about becoming an actor with the Abbey Theatre; Michael-Joe Tarpey worked all his life for the forestry department, but still managed to be a musician, builder, naturalist, maker of musical instruments and custodian of local history and folklore; Bridgit Dirrane, now 106, was an active member of Cumann na nBan, the women's branch of the Irish independence movement in the 1920s. Against a background of world-shattering events at home and abroad, Margaret Hickey's subjects lived lives of extraordinary diversity and recount them with the poetry for which their country is renowned.