In a society obsessed with living longer and looking younger, what does middle age mean today?
Spurred by her own brutal propulsion into menopause, Marina Benjamin's clear-eyed account of our middle years takes inspiration from literature and philosophy to weigh the challenges and opportunities of mid-life. It offers an inspired and expanded vision of how to be middle-aged happily and harmoniously, without sentiment or delusion.
'Lucid and sophisticated ... A restrained but wonderful guide to the convulsive changes of 50 and over ... This is a book that yields valuable insights on almost every page.'
-- Melissa Benn * The Guardian *'A 21st-century meditation on middle age ... The Middlepause is erudite, with a lengthy list of notes and ideas for further reading, but it is also personal - part memoir, part unflinching travelogue through the unsettling physical and mental challenges of the menopause ... Honest and uplifting.'
* FT *'Women do a lot of things to mark turning fifty. Go to a resort! Have a bang-up party! Far, far better: read The Middlepause.'
* Jill Lepore, author of The Secret History of Wonder Woman *'Emotionally honest.'
-- Tom Gatti * New Statesman *'We are not supposed to beguile, we the middle-aged women. But with The Middlepause, Marina Benjamin does that: she beguiles and entrances with a lyrical, thoughtful, erudite, and always lucid exploration of the middle years of her life, and what they mean to her, and what middle-aged women mean to society.'
-- Rose George, author of The Big Necessity'Beautifully written and so thoughtful, The Middlepause made me think about fleeting time and what is important to me. I couldn't put it down.'
-- Amy Jenkins, author of Honeymoon and creator of This Life'Renunciation, shape-shifting, ennui, sorrow: this tender and thoughtful book calls for an 'invisible revolution' in our attitudes to women's ageing. In a deeply personal meditation Benjamin places body knowledge and luck alongside grieving and family history; intimate reflection with literary exemplar; communion with ghosts sadly close to the painful real. The Middlepause is a wise, lucid and beautiful plea for more candid discussion of the time-wrought transformations of the female body.'
-- Gail Jones, author of A Guide to Berlin'Intimate, open-hearted, clever and kind, this book is a companion which, by naming the shadow fears, finds the truer gold.'
-- Jay Griffiths, author of Kith'A candid and beautifully written wrinkles and all meditation on the middle years with all their dilemmas and challenges ... [Marina Benjamin] seeks a new vision of how to be middle-aged happily and harmoniously without sentiment or delusion.'
-- Caroline Sanderson * The Bookseller *'A candid look at what it means to be 50 today ... Warm, wise and beautifully written.'
* Good Housekeeping *'This is a measured and beautifully written critique of menopause and middle age that pre-, mid-, and postmenopausal women will find eminently relatable, and that those who love and care for them will likewise appreciate.'
* Publishers Weekly *'Benjamin takes us into her inner world - it's instructive, and very moving.'
-- William Leith * Evening Standard *'Full of insight.'
-- Eleanor Mills * Sunday Independent *