Judging by the title of this essay, one might be surprised at the uplifting nature of the storyline. But to know the author is to appreciate the value of an optimistic life. Here we are two years after publication, in the middle of a pandemic lockdown, and I just Zoomed with John from his home in London, happily telling me about his time after golf, his brilliant 12-year-old daughter, Annie, his new love who lectures at a university in Canterbury, the painting he’d just completed of his 95-year-old father (shown below), the psychotherapy practice he started after getting a doctorate in his 50s, and the occasional long walks he still is able to take on good days. “Sometimes I look at my hand and I don’t see a tremor,” he says, brightening. “But then I look again and it’s returned.”