Aging isn’t easy, and topics like dementia and medically assisted dying can be hard to talk about. The British mystery writer Richard Osman is trying to change that. Osman has reimagined the notion of aging through his best-selling “Thursday Murder Club” series, centered on four seniors living in a posh retirement community who solve murders.
In this episode, he sits down with the Opinion writer Michelle Cottle to discuss why seniors make ideal fictional detectives and how a “cozy” murder mystery is the perfect frame to explore growing old.
Below is a transcript of an episode of “The Opinions.” We recommend listening to it in its original form for the full effect. You can do so using the player above or on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube, iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts.
The transcript has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Michelle Cottle: I’m Michelle Cottle, and I cover national politics for New York Times Opinion. I also have a bit of an obsession with the graying of America and the major changes that are coming with an aging population, on lots of levels.
This obsession has led me to dig into everything from caregiving and housing policy to the culture of the Villages, the mega-retirement community in Florida, to the rise of the reality TV show “The Golden Bachelor,” which has a new season. This week I’m talking with Richard Osman, who writes the best-selling mystery novels known as the “Thursday Murder Club” series. These books revolve around four residents of a posh retirement village in the British countryside who investigate murders in their spare time.
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The post The ‘Thursday Murder Club’ Author Wants Us to Rethink Aging appeared first on New York Times.
