How old do you feel?

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How old do you feel?

Joan Bakewell wrote this week that turning 80 means 'our time is passing, and we know it'. Meanwhile, Bruce Forsyth, 85, insisted that when he walks on stage he still feels 30. Is age just a number? Here, G2 writers of different vintages reveal their thoughts on ageing
  • The Guardian,
  • Tim Dowling
    Real age: 49. The age I feel: 39

    Tim Dowling Tim Dowling: 'Maturity is a pose I can manage from time to time.' Photograph: Graham Turner for the Guardian I doubt many people over 40 feel as old as they look. For most of us, the face in the mirror is the painting in the attic. When I haven't been in front of my reflection for a while, I forget what my age looks like. The face I imagine I'm peering out from behind is about 10 years younger than the one I catch sight of when my computer screen suddenly goes dark.
    It's hard to gauge the age I feel inside: the actual person – a frightened little homunculus – doesn't change much, but the person I'm pretending to be has to recalibrate himself constantly. Maturity is a pose I can manage from time to time only because I know the outer shell is weathered enough to pull it off. Wisdom is easy: look old, say nothing. At the same time, I find that giddiness or irreverence may cause alarm in strangers. If I'm going to play to – or against – the stereotype of someone my age, I have to bear in mind how old I am.
    I learned some years ago that what is commonly called a mid-life crisis would be better termed a personal ongoing emergency. In my case it never reached any sort of "crisis"; it just kept getting worse. I have long since given up on the idea of being comfortable in my own skin. I never have been, and I can't see how encroaching infirmity is going to help.
    Mine is a generation that believes it is the first to refuse to be circumscribed by middle age. We'll just carry on as before, we think, unhampered by respectability or decorum. I'm pretty certain every generation felt this way – at least with respect to the preceding generation – and thought it was the first to do so. But the restrictions you fear middle age will impose upon you simply aren't in place. At my age, one is free to behave like someone 10 years younger, or 10 years older, and embarrassment is the least of all terrors. You can be anything you want at 50, except cool.
    I suppose if I had to put a number to it, I'd say I generally feel about 39. Except on the morning after a long-haul flight, when I feel 100.

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