Now We Are Sixty

When Christopher Matthew was six, the poems of A.A. Milne were always on hand to reassure him that other children were just as puzzled and naughty and foolish as he was and that grown-ups could be even sillier. Now that he is sixty, he has decided it's high time there was an equally reassuring volume for them of his generation who are not only more confused than ever, but are losing their teeth, their hair and, all too often, their own car keys. What he has done is take some of Milne's best-loved poems and rewritten them for sixty-year-olds, with results that are often hilarious, sometimes rueful, and always thought-provoking. The poems not only follow the familiar rhythms and rhyme schemes of the master, but reinvent that curious mixture of comedy and wistfulness, sharp observation and daft whimsy.