A radical re-think of our approach to everything from education, healthcare and work, to design, relationships and politics. An essential and inspiring read for everyone interested in our collective future.

A revolution in how we age is here. Yes, ageing is inevitable: one year from now we will all be a year older; that will never change. What can and will change is how we age--and how we can all take a much bolder approach to doing it with vigour and joy.

The time has come to cast off prejudices and to blur the lines of what is possible and permissible at every stage of life. In other words: we need to learn to re-imagine our approach to later life. Emboldening ourselves in older age demands big structural changes. For a start, we will have to tear up the old script that locks us into devoting the early part of our life to education, the middle chunk to working and raising kids, and whatever is left over at the end to leisure. In an age-inappropriate world, these silos will dissolve. We'll embrace the idea that we can carry on learning from start to finish; that we can work less and devote more time to family, leisure, and giving back to our communities in our middle years; and that we can remain active and engaged in our later years.

Carl Honoré has travelled the globe speaking to influential figures who are bucking preconceived notions of age, whether at work or in their personal lives. He looks at the cultural, medical, and technological developments that are opening new possibilities for us all.

Carl Honore's profile page

Canadian-born journalist CARL HONORÉ has written for The Economist, the Houston Chronicle, the Observer, and the National Post, but he is best known for his advocacy of the Slow Movement. A loose and international effort by the harried and haggard to decelerate the pace of their lives, the Slow Movement spans everything from telecommunications (slow e-mail) and health care (slow medicine) to diet (slow food) and public space (slow cities). In Praise of Slow has been translated into well over twenty languages. Carl's TED Talk on the subject has been viewed by more than 2.5 million people. He is also the author of Under Pressure: Putting the Child Back in Childhood and The Slow Fix: Solve Problems, Work Smarter and Live Better.

“Anyone who dreads the thought of ageing will find solace in this book, which is peppered with real-life stories from around the globe of the people Honoré interviewed.” —The Australian

“[Honore’s] stirring research and faith in the human spirit will linger long after one hears this exceptional audio.” —AudioFile

“With grace and elegance, Bolder reveals the unexpected beauty of growing older.” —Reader’s Digest

“A sensation when he spoke about ‘slow living’ for TED in 2005, Honoré has now turned his attention to the gap between an obsolete ageist culture—one that assumes ‘older’ means ‘worse’, ‘weaker’ and ‘out-of-touch’—with the reality he encountered in his research. . . . Pack Bolder in your holiday holdall.” —GQ (UK)
“A joyously life-enhancing book [that] shatters the myths about ageing.” —Daily Mail
“A pick-you-up for anyone feeling the best of life has been lived. . . . Honoré is a verbal magician, conjuring concepts with no new idea too complex to capture. . . . Easy to read, the book canters along.” —Australian Financial Review
“Honoré has so many examples of collaboration, grit and creativity that you won’t be so afraid when you come to inhabit your older self.” —The Bookshelf

“In dark times, Bolder is a book that really does look to the future with optimism.” —The Herald

“[O]ne of the lessons of Carl Honoré’s informative book is that ageism is steadily being rolled back, even if much of it is going on under the radar.” —The Guardian
“A pick-you-up for anyone feeling the best of life has been lived.” —The Sydney Morning Herald
“Carl challenges us to rethink our approach to aging and start seeing it as a privilege, rather than a punishment.” —Global News
Praise for CARL HONORE and his previous book, THE SLOW FIX:

“The global guru on the Slow Movement.” —The Globe and Mail

“The unofficial godfather of a growing cultural shift toward slowing down.” —ABC News

“With sharp, rhythmic prose, Honoré presents a number of guideposts to effective problem solving supported by intriguing anecdotes from sources as diverse as a Harlem daycare, Domino’s Pizza, and a study of municipal reform in Colombia. Each tale is worth reading on its own, and combined they make for a feast of stories about people overcoming all manner of obstacles, with the promise of showing us how to better cope with our own struggles. . . . For readers in a hurry, Honoré’s insights can be gleaned from a quick skim of the book, but it is more fruitful and certainly more pleasurable to savour each story, each charming turn of phrase, while also contemplating the rewards of taking it slow.” —Quill & Quire

“Honoré is a skilled journalist, well aware of the virtues of brevity in relating an anecdote or setting a scene or making a point. The narrative never bogs down. . . . Honoré’s book is basically upbeat, very much a document of its time.” —National Post

“Accessible, lucid and wise, this book should sit in every government and managerial office.” —The Independent

“Mr. Honoré has a winning style and an infectious curiosity about the minutiae of other people’s lives.” —The Wall Street Journal