DEVI Sridhar, remember her? The Professor and Chair of Global Public Health at the University of Edinburgh was one of the faces of lockdown. With Nicola Sturgeon, then First Minister, and Jason Leitch, former National Clinical Director, the three were in our homes so often we should have charged rent. Where are they now, you might wonder?

That’s easy, since two of the three have books out now or in a few weeks: Ms Sturgeon has her memoirs and Prof Sridhar a book on public health snappily titled How Not to Die (Too Soon): The Lies We’ve Been Sold and the Policies that Can Save Us. I haven’t heard of Mr Leitch writing a book, but should he change his mind the title “Plausible Deniability” is still available.

In her book, Prof Sridhar reveals that she would like to reach a nice, round century. Wow. Until relatively recently, that would have seemed the stuff of science fiction. But now that more of us are living longer it no longer appears far-fetched. According to the World Health Organisation, by 2020 there were more people aged 60 and over on the planet than there were children under five.

For some reason, 60 is the magic number when it comes to ageing. Perhaps it is the point of no return, the moment when you can no longer think of yourself as middle-aged and have to find a new label.

But words like “senior”, “elderly”, and “pensioner” no longer fit your average 60-year-old. They don’t sit with the current vibe, as trumpeted in one headline I saw the other day. “Sixty is the new 40”, it announced, followed by lots of advice about trying new things, taking the road less travelled, while you still can. It’s the old middle........

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