I admit it: I like reading books about ageing, life extension, and immortality. These seem to fall into two categories. Some authors expect to live forever because of the vitamin cocktails they drink every morning or the transfusions they receive of younger people’s blood (yuck). Other authors think it’s all a load of nonsense with narcissistic tech billionaires engaging in pseudo-science. Nicklas Brendborg falls into neither of these categories. This is a well-written, clear, and breezy account of a complex subject. Brendborg is not convinced that we are all about to live forever. But he is pretty sure that we are making progress on understanding what ageing is, and finding promising avenues for research. I hope he’s right — and I enjoyed his book.