Madge

One of the best nights I have spent in the theatre was for An Evening's Intercourse with Dame Edna Everage. Emily Perry, who played Edna's bridesmaid, Madge Allsopp, died last week aged 100. One of the tributes paid to her was that her job was to do nothing, and she did it beautifully.

During the more than twenty years she worked with Barry Humphries she travelled the world, though she admitted, at the age of 99, she couldn't remember a thing.

Doing less, and eventually doing nothing, but beautifully, seems like a good plan for retirement. Between now and when I'm 100 I'd like not so much to see more, do more, and travel further, as to digest, value, appreciate what I have; reflect on what I have seen, read and done.

And then, mercifully, to forget.