I have found that turning 75 has less to do with slowing down and more to do with noticing.
In December 2025, I responded to the Oldster Magazine Questionnaire — reflecting on art, aging, and reinvention now that I’m 75 years old.
Author/editor Sari Botton created Oldster Magazine to explore what growing older means, what aging means to people from all walks of life, including writers, musicians, and artists you’ve heard of (and now…me.) I was pleased to be included in that conversation, and to reflect on how creative work doesn’t retire at 65 — or 75.
My wife Kathy and I knew Sari from our Life Cafe days in New York City’s East Village. I joined her writers’ group with Kath back then. The lively circle of storytellers, playwrights, and musicians welcomed us. So it felt fitting — and rather lovely — to reconnect decades later with Sari and reflect about art, my Yorkshire roots, Spain (where we now live), and what being 75 actually feels like.
In the questionnaire, I speak about reinvention, creative work in later life. How the path from my first memoir On My Way to Jorvik eventually led to The Last Shepherd’s Dog — a memoir about belonging, second acts, and unexpected shepherds in a Spanish mountain village.
I have found that turning 75 has less to do with slowing down and more to do with noticing, something I learned profoundly during the years that shaped The Last Shepherd’s Dog.
You can read my full responses in Oldster Magazine, where I talk more about creative life at 75. Here’s the link.
If you’re new to my work through Oldster, you can explore my memoir The Last Shepherd’s Dog.
Being included in Oldster Magazine is a reminder that creative life doesn’t retire. It simply changes shape.
