Keyes: men in midlife crisis are not fools

AUTHORS must stop making a mockery of the male midlife crisis, Marian Keyes, the writer, has said.

Keyes, who has sold more than 30million copies of her novels, said too many books portrayed middle aged men as “complete fools”.

“There are a lot of books written about midlife crises,” she told the Love Stories With Dolly Alderton podcast. “And they’re almost always ones where the man is portrayed as a complete fool, who’s just totally lost it.

“But nobody really goes through a midlife crisis without experiencing real despair. Real fear, and real soul-searching about ‘what have you done with your life’.”

Keyes was discussing her latest novel, The Break, which tells the story of a woman whose husband leaves her for a six-month trip to south-east Asia.