We are living in an unprecedented age: this year marks the first time in human history that the number of people aged 65 and over outnumber children aged five and under. It is a tumultuous demographic shift. How will we address the ensuing challenges? How will we ensure that we reap the benefits of prolonged life?

Award winning journalist Camilla Cavendish contests many of the taboos around aging, arguing for a seismic change in our attitudes to the last phase of life. Nicci Gerrard – who has produced a profoundly moving account of dementia – explores memory, language, identity, the notion of what it truly means to care, and asks how we begin to value those who become old, invisible, forgotten? What do we owe them, and each other as humans? With The Oldie Magazine editor, Harry Mount.

Camilla Cavendish is an award-winning columnist and broadcaster, whose campaigns have changed the law. She was the head of the Downing Street Policy Unit and now sits in the House of Lords. She writes the high-profile weekly Saturday op-ed column in the Financial Times, is a contributor to the Sunday Times, appears regularly on programmes like Today and Question Time, and is a Senior Fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School. Extra Time is her first book.

Nicci Gerrard writes for The Observer and is the co-author, with Sean French, of the bestselling Nicci French thrillers. She lives in Suffolk with her husband and four children.

Harry Mount is editor of The Oldie and the author of eight books. He was a leader writer and New York correspondent at the Daily Telegraph and is a former barrister.

In association with The Oldie.