Alan Heeks

Not Fade Away: Staying happy when you're over 64! is the new book by resilience writer Alan Heeks, offering guidance to the baby boomer generation for enjoying their vintage years, and growing through the tough parts of getting older. Now 69, Alan is deeply engaged with the issues in this new book. Alan Heeks says: "The late sixties and beyond are a landmark: a good time to choose what you want from the years ahead, and take stock of the story so far. This short, practical book offers simple guidelines to find your bearings and make sense of the sixties and seventies. This is a time of big transition, potentially a time of new freedom. But it's also a time for facing challenges, which is why navigating your way forward skilfully at this age is so important. The book will also be a helpful guide for those in their fifties, offering inspiration and helpful foresight for the road ahead." 

With chapter titles named after iconic Sixties songs - from Good Vibrations and All Along the Watchtower to My Generation and Sunshine of Your Love - Not Fade Away is arranged in three main sections. 'Finding your Gifts' helps you appreciate the good things in your life, add to them, and make the best of your resources. With advice on silver dating, friendships, family dynamics and different kinds of communities and groups, it also shares advice on finding more meaning and purpose and provides ideas for creating fresh adventures. 'Digging the Challenges' contains guidance and resources for dealing with difficulties such as failing health, fears of growing older, and grieving lost loved ones, and shares positive ways to meet your financial needs. And finally, 'Fresh Maps', complete with advice from a range of role models, provides insights for changing unhelpful patterns and for becoming a 'wise elder', and shares useful hints, forecasts and opportunities for the decade ahead. All proceeds from the book will be donated to the charity Action for Happiness www.actionforhappiness.org/. 

Not Fade Away also explores what we can learn from the spirit of the Sixties. With so many music and movie stars from the era still vibrant and performing at 70 plus - from Mick Jagger and Judi Dench to Terence Stamp and Judy Collins - what can we learn from their journey through the decades, and how the Sixties shaped them? Alan Heeks says: "One benefit of these uncertain times we live in is that patterns and precedents are breaking down, so we're more free to suit ourselves. There are people starting families and big new projects in their seventies; there are people relishing a quieter, slower pace; and there are people facing death or major illness. Whatever you're facing, believe that you have more choices, more resources and more support than you imagine. Trust that life is inviting you to find your way. I hope you'll find Not Fade Away a useful resource in that process, shining a light on your best way forward." 

Julie Felix, the 1960's folk star, endorses Alan's book: "I feel lucky to have been part of the Sixties. I feel lucky to still be singing what Bob Marley calls "these songs of freedom". And in the autumn of my years I'm glad I can reach out and find a song to sing. Growing old is a challenge and Alan's book can make the journey less daunting and more fun."

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