Uticopa Blog

All are agreed. 2008 was a terrible year. Woolworth's has gone, stock markets have crashed, house prices have collapsed and we're all a little poorer.  To pile on the agony, it's making us feel old and ever more weary. Any one of these things is enough to send us into a spiral of depression leading to the very nadir of despair. 

But help is at hand.

Hot off the presses is a book called ‘Pensioners in Paradis' by Olga Swan. It relates the story of how a couple reach that fork in the tree of life called retirement. They had lived their whole lives in the West Midlands - a place endemic with self-deprecation, pessimism and laconicism. And then disaster struck.  Read what the Connexion, a national newspaper in France, had to say when they reviewed the book in December:

"...It tells the story of two English Midlanders who, experiencing disaster when their livelihood is burnt down at the local market, decide to give it all up and move abroad. There is clever use of detail, description and sayings which can really make you identify with the characters and you are eager to see how their adventure unfolds." 

Why this book could be just the solace we all need right now is its air of humour and wit, which overrides all the troubles they experience. But more than that:  it shows how, with a little mental positivity and motivating purpose, anything is possible and I mean anything. 

Here's a paragraph or two to show the depths of depression at the beginning of the book.....and the complete change of outlook, mind and demeanour right at the end. 

It all started in the suburbs. 
High Street was its usual murky self.  Poisonous clouds of diesel fumes snaked upwards from the eco-friendly municipal buses, their branded livery promising non-stop speedy journeys to the city centre five miles away.  Shoppers everywhere played Russian roulette dodging the traffic, the narrow roads built in another time.

Different mind-set, different way of life.

The buses burped and pushed their way through, their speedy design constantly thwarted by those damned other road users. City life everywhere in this crowded island, everyone blindly focused on their own affairs, their own single-minded pursuits.
Pedestrians knew subliminally it was quicker to walk, as they dodged and fought their way along the crowded pavements, narrowly avoiding countless burning fag-ends before tripping over the next shop's illegal pavement sign. Little old ladies everywhere. The same silver-grey perm and trusty tartan shopping-trolley, all barging their way relentlessly down their relentless lives.

And now the transition to a completely different mindset, right at the end of the book:

The combination of the quality of the light (la qualité de la lumière), the amazing belle cuisine, the open spaces, fresh air and the slower lifestyle of French rural village life have fused together to do what England could never do for me:  change a natural-born pessimist into one who now enjoys life to the full.  It reminds me of my rose-tinted memories of England fifty years ago, but without all the anguish and post-war ration books.  No more licking those infernally irritating stamps of life.

Well done France.  We have come to a decision.  We are here to stay.
Vive la France.  Vive les français.  Vive la différence!

We've all sought oblivion at certain times of our lives by immersing ourselves in a good book. It can help enormously to read how others at a low stage in their lives deal with their situation.  We may not all be in a position to emigrate, but we can all take on board the positivity that this couple showed. 

It's often the case that when we experience a particularly low ebb in life, anything and everything seems like a huge mountain to climb.  But, as with that intrepid couple in ‘Pensioners in Paradis', it's only by taking those first few faltering steps that things can start to change for the better. For those who want to read further to find out how that pair of depressed Midlanders clawed their way to a life that neither could possibly have dreamed of, simply click on the book icon above or order it from that walk-in bookstore on your local high street.

Dreams can happen - but it's you yourself who needs to take that first step.