Bailey’s guide to ageing

• Published date: 24 April 2024
• Publication title: Kapiti News

by Judy Bailey, HarperCollins, $39.99

In her days as a TVNZ news presenter Judy Bailey became known as “the mother of the nation”, such was the trust placed in her delivery.

Now a grandmother and into her 70s, she’s writes as authoratively about coping mechanisms for the ageing process as she articulated the daily bulletins.

Bailey has the street cred to win trust. Add to that she writes in a warm, chatty style which draws readers in.

Quoting a wide range of professional sources, she brings insight and advice to those who have yet to reach their senior years about what is ahead of them. These revelations are matched with words of wisdom about how to handle the often-unimagined situations that will be met.

Helpful hints offered on some of the subjects Bailey focuses on may be basic common sense. Diet, exercise and health care are examples. But this isn’t a once-over-lightly self-help guide for those in what’s sometimes euphemistically described as the “golden years”.

Bailey doesn’t sugar-coat the downside of ageing. Her insight into the lives of those who decline into dementia is heartfelt. She’s experienced it first-hand — her mother and...