Youth may be wasted on the young, but longevity is certainly not squandered on the old. It is not just today - when Lucian Freud paints or Doris Lessing writes, or when the queen and Nelson Mandela criss-cross the world as jauntily as gap-year travellers - that we see evidence of how some of the best tunes are played on old fiddles.
Titian was at his best as he inched towards 80, even though his eyesight was failing and he painted with his fingers because he was too frail to hold a brush. At 85 Gladstone was massaging the second Home Rule Bill for Ireland through Parliament before returning home to translate Horace odes. Ronald Reagan was running the world's most powerful country in his late 70s. Tolstoy learnt to ride a bicycle at 67. Toscanini was conducting orchestras into his 80s. Cato took up Greek at 80. Plutarch was not much younger when he started learning Latin. P. G. Wodehouse published a Jeeves at 90.
The above was taken from an editorial in The Times about an award that The Times has introduced to celebrate achievement into old age. The award is for men and women who regard ageing as something best left to wine.
At a time when the older age groups are increasing as a proportion of the total population, it is good to see what some people can achieve and hopefully they will inspire us.