Title: 'Falling in Love' After fifty ... The Best Is Yet To Come
Authors: Cynthia Wilmot and Marguerite Guaron
Pages: 119
Publishers: LMH Publishing

A light-hearted spirit sparkles in 'Falling in Love' After Fifty ... The Best is Yet to Come, but the authors certainly do not take the matter of women keeping that spring in their step and bed springs squeaking as they get older, lightly.

Cynthia Wilmot and Marguerite Guaron utilise refreshing irreverence and a mostly conversational style in whipping up enthusiasm among women who may feel as if they have peaked and are freewheeling to their nadir. And, 'Falling in Love' After Fifty ... The Best is Yet to Come is not only for those women in the cohort between a half-century and a coffin who might feel they have lost their sauciness, the saucy book is just as handy for those lithe lasses who think that their lower back tattoos will never incorporate stretch marks in their designs and men who are heading 'up there' with their partners.

It is a re-evaluation of how older women perceive themselves and, more significantly, how ageing is regarded in a society which produced a song informing "young gal business control Jamaica".

'Falling in Love' is in inverted commas with good reason. For long before Wilmot and Guaron get to the most popular interpretation of the phrase, deep emotional attachment to an intimate partner, they advocate falling in love with oneself all over again. In fact, that self-appreciation, attachment and fulfilment takes up most of the book.

Attention-getter

Not that the twinkle-eyed two do not make it clear that men are very much a part of the equation along the way; after all, they do advise "if you want to really wake up the male in your life, remember that fire-engine red is the super attention-getter, the number one 'turn-on' colour".

Hot stuff. But, before the heat (or maybe along with it) comes the preparation.

So in the opening chapter, 'Are You Ready For Love?' Wilmot and Guaron give a human biology ("scratch the paint on your Benz and it's a trip to the body shop; scratch your finger and new skin appears") and female physiology crash course ("And later in life, when child-bearing years end, another command goes out from headquarters - 'Mission Accomplished!'").

Then, they move on to 'Dealing With 'Age'', which is where the really fun stuff begins, case histories of women sprinkled liberally through the rest of 'Falling in Love' After Fifty ...The Best is Yet to Come. They vigorously attack "the misconception ... that a woman must undergo mental and physical torture at menopause, that at 60, aches, pains and bifocals must not only be a way of life but the main topic of conversation".

Good grannies

In 'Learning to Let Go' they declare "We'll continue to be good grannies, but we refuse to be held responsible for EVERYTHING!" There are personal flashbacks to the 1920s (Wilmot) and the 30s and 40s (Guaron) in 'Remember When ...' and then they get to the advice and instructions part, 'Doing The Most With What You've Got'.

Here there is exercise to defy gravity (including basic smiling), the pair advising that in terms of body aesthetics "backs and bottoms often outlast tummies and breats, but you can practice sitting, standing ...". In subsequent chapters, they cover cosmetics, body image ("we feel that women look younger with tinted hair ...") - including extensive exercise advice.

Then when the lady is ready it is on to 'Falling in Love Again' - as we reflexively interpret it.

It is instructive that, as they approach the end of the book, Wilmot and Guaron open the chapter on 'Serious Options' with "readers who have stayed with us up to now may feel we're being a bit superficial in our approach. It's all very well to talk of beginning a new love life after your first half-century, but we know as well as you do that it isn't always easy".

What follows is advice in near-worst-case scenarios, including being tossed aside by a partner with little or no resources, as well as having to suddenly take up new responsibilities as a partner dies.

True happiness

And, as they wrap up a book which covers the mental, physical and financial, all in clear language, often with humour, always with unfettered enthusiasm, Wilmot and Guaron say,

"A truly happy woman, whether she has a special man to love or not, DOES fall in love with everybody. Her overtures win smiles from others in response and she finds that people who were strangers are interesting people like herself ..."

And, in the end, it is this all-embracing love of life and people which is the best that is to come.