'This is not quite a memoir. Rather, it is the view from old age. And a view of old age itself, this place at which we arrive with a certain surprise - ambushed, or so it can seem. One of the few advantages of age is that you can report on it with a certain authority; you are a native now, and know what goes on here.'Taking in old age, the context of ones life and times, memory, reading and writing, and the identifying cargo of possessions - two ammonites, a cat, a pair of American ducks and a leaping fish sherd, amongst others - this is an elegant, moving and deeply enjoyable memoir by one of our most loved writers.