Book excerpt: The authors' basic premise is that retirement is a notion to be banished from all sensible conversation and promotes the idea that no one should retire and no one should want to retire. Quite apart from the economic reality that our respective Governments can't possible afford the retirement we all expected when we started our working lives. Instead they say we should look at rearranging our lives to suit our changing circumstances, but allow no room for the idea of a use-by date when we stop and vegetate - because that's when we die, usually of boredom. A hard-hitting look at the Western economic history of retirement and how it has no place in the modern world, the authors provide case studies and a workable blueprint for changing our expectations and our plans for the second half of our working lives. With practical, pragmatic and accessible text, the book will be illustrated throughout with line drawings, pull out quotes and bullet-pointed text summaries.