HomeSeriesMilestone Birthdays

A Home Truths series

Milestone Birthdays

One book for each big birthday, written for the person having it rather than about them.

The books

All books

What is the Milestone Birthdays series?

Milestone Birthdays is a Home Truths series. One book for each big birthday, written for the person having it rather than about them. Every factual claim in every book is traced to a named source, and the sources are printed in the back.

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Every book in the series

BookWho it is forWhat it covers that the others do notStatus
Fifty. And Nobody Warned You50th birthday gifts for menThe pilot. For a man turning fifty: what a house and a week of work actually cost in each year he might have arrived, every figure traced to the Office for National Statistics, Nationwide or the Bank of England, and roughly a third of the book he is expected to write in himself.in production
Fifty. And Nobody Warned You50th birthday gifts for womenThe same fifty years, read from the other side. Built from the identical fact register as the men's edition and written to a woman rather than about one, with the same last third left deliberately blank.in production
Sixty. And Nobody Warned You60th birthday gifts for menSixty years is long enough that the numbers stop being nostalgia and start being evidence. This one leans hardest on the what-it-cost-then tables, because the gap is widest here, and it does not assume the reader is retiring, because most sixty-year-olds are not.in production
Sixty. And Nobody Warned You60th birthday gifts for womenSixty years read from the other side, and the years where the difference is not a matter of tone. A woman turning sixty was born into a country where she could be refused a mortgage in her own name, and the tables in this edition carry that rather than averaging it away.in production
Forty. And Nobody Warned You40th birthday gifts for menForty is the milestone people mark by insisting they are not marking it. Shorter on nostalgia and longer on the honest bits, because forty years is not yet long enough for the prices to be funny on their own.in production
Forty. And Nobody Warned You40th birthday gifts for womenForty, for a woman who has been told it is a beginning by people selling her something. The prices are still too recent to be absurd, so this edition spends its length on the decade nobody warns you about: the one where the people either side of you both need something.in production
Seventy. And Nobody Warned You70th birthday gifts for menSeventy years of prices is the widest gap in the series and it needs no commentary at all. This edition gives the tables the most room and the jokes the least, on the grounds that a man who has watched a house go from four figures to six does not need it explained to him.in production
Seventy. And Nobody Warned You70th birthday gifts for womenSeventy 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.in production
Thirty. And Nobody Warned You30th birthday gifts for menThe one edition where the price tables are not a joke about the past. A man turning thirty is looking at the same numbers as a threat rather than a memory, and the book says so instead of pretending otherwise.in production
Thirty. And Nobody Warned You30th birthday gifts for womenThirty, without a single line about a body clock. The numbers in this one are live rather than historical, and the blank third is written for somebody who will read it back at forty and be surprised by what she was worried about.in production

Frequently asked

What is the Milestone Birthdays series?
Milestone Birthdays is a Home Truths series. One book for each big birthday, written for the person having it rather than about them. Every factual claim in every book is traced to a named source, and the sources are printed in the back.
Which Milestone Birthdays book should I get?
Match the book to the person rather than to the occasion. Fifty. And Nobody Warned You is the pilot. For a man turning fifty: what a house and a week of work actually cost in each year he might have arrived, every figure traced to the Office for National Statistics, Nationwide or the Bank of England, and roughly a third of the book he is expected to write in himself. Fifty. And Nobody Warned You is the same fifty years, read from the other side. Built from the identical fact register as the men's edition and written to a woman rather than about one, with the same last third left deliberately blank. Sixty. And Nobody Warned You is sixty years is long enough that the numbers stop being nostalgia and start being evidence. This one leans hardest on the what-it-cost-then tables, because the gap is widest here, and it does not assume the reader is retiring, because most sixty-year-olds are not. Sixty. And Nobody Warned You is sixty years read from the other side, and the years where the difference is not a matter of tone. A woman turning sixty was born into a country where she could be refused a mortgage in her own name, and the tables in this edition carry that rather than averaging it away. Forty. And Nobody Warned You is forty is the milestone people mark by insisting they are not marking it. Shorter on nostalgia and longer on the honest bits, because forty years is not yet long enough for the prices to be funny on their own. Forty. And Nobody Warned You is forty, for a woman who has been told it is a beginning by people selling her something. The prices are still too recent to be absurd, so this edition spends its length on the decade nobody warns you about: the one where the people either side of you both need something. Seventy. And Nobody Warned You is seventy years of prices is the widest gap in the series and it needs no commentary at all. This edition gives the tables the most room and the jokes the least, on the grounds that a man who has watched a house go from four figures to six does not need it explained to him. Seventy. And Nobody Warned You is 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. Thirty. And Nobody Warned You is the one edition where the price tables are not a joke about the past. A man turning thirty is looking at the same numbers as a threat rather than a memory, and the book says so instead of pretending otherwise. Thirty. And Nobody Warned You is thirty, without a single line about a body clock. The numbers in this one are live rather than historical, and the blank third is written for somebody who will read it back at forty and be surprised by what she was worried about.
Do the books repeat each other?
They share a structure and not their content. The tables, the years and the observations are specific to each book, which is the whole reason there is more than one rather than one book with a variable printed on the cover.