… or gloomy

... and mine’s completely empty

By Jeremy Paxman

10. I do what I want to do

I have grandchildren and greatgrandchildren. I adore seeing them and if I want a rest from them, I pretend to be more infirm than I am.

It’s the first time I’ve been able to think about myself. Princess Margaret and Colin and the children required looking after. I was really fortunate to have staff, but now I have just a daily who comes twice a week, which is perfect.

11. Travelling in comfort

A wonderful Turkish friend with a yacht sends his jet to pick us up. When we arrive in Turkey, his helicopter takes us to his yacht.

I told him I can’t now go down ladders into the sea, being bashed around by the waves. So he arranged a hoist – the most wonderful wooden platform that goes up and down into the sea.

I’ve given up sailing on my own after a nasty accident. I learnt when I was five and stopped when I was 80. So I had a very good innings. Now other people take me out at Burnham Overy.

12. Younger friends

A lot of my friends have died. The thing about old age is trying to make younger friends.

13. Driving

I still drive up to Scotland. It can take eight hours to get to Glen. My children have told me to stop halfway at Scotch Corner to eat, and sometimes I stay overnight at a hotel to break the journey.

Driving was the only way I could get away from Colin and I always switched off my mobile phone. When Colin was gathered, it was a great relief.

I now think of the happy memories. The difficult ones fade into the past. It’s so much nicer.

In old age, I am very happy. I’ve been through the fiery furnace and somehow come out the other side.

Anne Glenconner’s Whatever Next: Lessons from an Unexpected Life is out now

It is perpetually damp in my part of the forest.

I can see no reason to join in the idiotic outbreaks of goodwill about 2023, since more or less the only certainty is that my Parkinson’s is not going to get any better.

I have not bothered to keep a tally of all the Pollyannas who’ve repeatedly chanted that Parkinson’s disease is not fatal. They seem unaware that while this disease may not kill you, it has the power to make you wish you were already dead.

1. I gave up making New Year resolutions the year I resolved to ‘swear less’. Less than what? I hope instead that, this year, fewer people resolve to become Prime Minister in the trivial and vainglorious 2023.

Ever since David Cameron wormed

2. It will take most of 2023 to get over the shutdown ordered to fight the COVID pandemic.

Unsurprisingly, the problem is bad in the public sector: by the end of 2022, in some government departments fewer than half of the staff had returned to the office. I do not expect to have my new driving licence issued in this calendar year.

3. In 2023, I also do not expect to break my own record for the number of salmon caught in a year.

Something is going on at sea –perhaps it’s as simple and complicated as a general rise in water temperatures – which means these fabled fish are not returning to their natal rivers in this country in the numbers we once knew.

4. I have so far ignored all requests