Seventy. And Nobody Warned You

Seventy years, read from the side where more of the law changed. A woman turning seventy was an adult before the Equal Pay Act was in force, and this edition puts those dates next to the wage tables rather than in a preface nobody reads.

What is in it

• The years you could have been born, and what a house, a week of work and a pound actually cost in each of them.
• What has changed since, with the figures rather than the sighing.
• The honest bits about the age, written by somebody not pretending it is fine.
• Quizzes and things to argue about.
• Things you can now say and get away with.
• Around forty pages to fill in, which is the part that survives.

Formats and price

Part of Milestone Birthdays, an Home Truths series.

Frequently asked

What is in the women's seventieth that is not in the men's?

The same seven decades with the dates that changed what a woman was allowed to do set against the wage and house price tables, rather than described separately. It is the edition where the what-has-changed pages carry the most weight, because the most changed.

Is it a sentimental book?

No. It is mostly numbers, mostly blank space, and observational where it is funny. Nothing in it congratulates the reader for having reached an age.

Is every fact in it sourced?

Yes, to the Nationwide house price index, the Bank of England historical dataset, the Office for National Statistics and the Official Charts Company.