Review: Older and Wider: Menopausal musings from the midlife

Older and Wider: Menopausal musings from the midlife by Jenny Eclair
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Older and Wider is Jenny Eclair's hilarious, irreverent and refreshingly honest compendium of the menopause. From C for Carb-loading and G for Getting Your Shit Together to I for Invisibility and V for Vaginas, Jenny's whistle-stop tour of the menopause in all its glory will make you realise that it really isn't just you. Jenny will share the surprising lessons she has learnt along the way as well as her hard-won tips on the joy of cardigans, dealing with the empty nest (get a lodger) and keeping the lid on the pressure cooker of your temper (count to twenty, ten is never enough).

I loved this book for many reasons, and felt that I could completely and utterly relate to it …I too used to live on the 176 bus route – in fact it used to stop right outside my first floor flat in Sydenham and I actually squealed with excitement when I read about that bus, for my 40^th birthday my husband (now ex husband…I wonder why?) bought me tea towels, oven gloves and a candle (a Tesco’s candle, not even a Jo Malone one!) and more importantly, I will turn 50 in a few weeks and the menopause is hitting me hard in the face.

Jenny gives you a warts and all account of what life is going to be like, this book is not tarted up with “light a candle and run yourself a bath” this is insightful, funny and heart-warming. I now feel ready for what is ahead of me -don’t get me wrong, I’m not some kind of weirdo who is looking forward to it, but at least I know that when I go back upstairs to get my car keys and walk back downstairs empty handed, I’m not the only one worrying that I’ve got early onset dementia – there are a whole army of women who are going through it.

The Tim Henman reference had me laughing like a drain – and I would buy the book just for that one sentence alone!!

I will buy this for all my friends who are going through the menopause, and if they don’t find it as funny or as informative as I did, at least they’ve got something to hurl at their partners and husbands who tell them to “get a grip”!

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