It teaches you to cope with life’s peaks & troughs

THE surest sign of middle age is taking seriously tables of the top 50 signs that you’re middle-aged.

At what age do you visit the opticians because you might need glasses? By that test, I turned middle-age at 24 when I moved to London and couldn’t read the signs at the front of Tube trains.

But if the test is using Facebook, revisiting nightclubs or taking part in a sporting event, I don’t qualify because I’ve never yet done any of them.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines middle age as 36 and 65. I tell you, it starts earlier – at 30 when you know you’re never going to be the youngest editor, or Prime Minister. You know your limitations, but you try to push them.

It teaches you to cope with the peaks and troughs, surprises and minor tragedies.

Middle age is the best of ages.