A fifty-something friend e-mailed the other day: “Will likely stop full-time work this year... retirement beckons!” I was surprised, because it seemed only about 15 minutes ago that he had been my twenty-something student-housemate, sprawled on the sofa in his underpants in mid-afternoon.

At 54, I have started hearing from people my age or barely older that they are “running out of ambition” or heading into “pre-retirement”, that antechamber between career and pension. Others suffer health scares, lose confidence in their bodies and start winding down.