Wolpert

Lewis Wolpert is Professor of Biology as Applied to

CV of Lewis Wolpert 2010

There are plenty of cultural references – from the myth of Tithonos to VS Pritchett's introduction to Muriel Spark's Memento Mori and back again – but I never really felt Wolpert was at home with the non-scientific aspects of organic entropy; whereas when he comes to writing about the biology of ageing he waxes very lucid indeed.

You're Looking Very Well by Lewis Wolpert – review 2011

Actually, I'm not sure that's really the case – and Wolpert born in 1929, a distinguished developmental biologist and emeritus professor, should know better than most that by no means all statistical correlations are causal ones.

You're Looking Very Well by Lewis Wolpert – review 2011

Wolpert wouldn't have been at all surprised by this, as he makes clear: the gruel of the toothless is an oddly moveable feast, and the older people get, the older they believe "old" to be.

You're Looking Very Well by Lewis Wolpert – review 2011

Wolpert, while he skates over the ethical issues implicit in the rapidly accelerating demographic timebomb on current trends, by 2050 there'll be a near 1:1 ratio of productive workers and the elderly in western societies, still takes an oppressively utilitarian view of it all.

You're Looking Very Well by Lewis Wolpert – review 2011

When I was little I was always talking to Wolpert.

Papa Oom Mow Mow Chris Okum 2011

And then when I'm done with Richard Ramirez I'm going to take a shower and then I'm going to get into bed and Wolpert is going to tell me a story about the time walked into a bar and the barkeep was on fire.

Papa Oom Mow Mow Chris Okum 2011

Given the hoodoo Wolpert put on any reviewer below a certain age, I hesitate to introduce a critical note . . . but there is something rather rushed about all this – almost as if he wanted his book to stay fit and active, the better to aspire to posterity.

You're Looking Very Well by Lewis Wolpert – review 2011

Wolpert says if he hadn't eaten his balls he would have died.

Papa Oom Mow Mow Chris Okum 2011

But I confess I found his bafflement a little hard to grasp – he also notes Roger Daltrey's notorious plaint "I hope I die before I get old", but it's very difficult to imagine Wolpert bending to the 1960s zephyr of change, let alone having a bop.

You're Looking Very Well by Lewis Wolpert – review 2011