There are seven million boomers in Australia today, almost a third of the population. Compared to previous generations, they have experienced radical alterations in family relationships. The authors list ‘serial partnerships, sexual experimentation, acceptance of same-sex marriage, and LBGTQI identities, as well as increasing numbers of young people not marrying and having children’. Many are also in the ‘sandwich’ of looking after aged parents as well as their own children. Government policy, nevertheless, clings to the outmoded model of a nuclear family. Progress on adapting legislation around parenting, employment, care allowances, and taxation has been glacially slow. Such changes would not only ease the lives of those involved but also promote a more efficient, flexible economy.

Housing and health, are also examined, presenting a wealth of fascinating research to overturn stereotypes of the middle-aged. We are reminded that many are vulnerable renters, not homeowners, and that we need novel solutions such as Homeshare schemes and pooling resources to buy communal property. People in this age group report being more frightened of developing dementia than of dying. They welcome euthanasia as an alternative to a prolonged, undignified death. The majority are also active sexually into their seventies and beyond, confounding earlier assumptions, yet there is little public acknowledgement of this. What a surprise: people over fifty need physical and emotional intimacy!

Peak focuses especially on the challenges of the middle-aged in the workforce. Once again, they have experienced massive changes: the advent of computer-based work; a shift from manufacturing to service industries; anti-discrimination legislation. Despite their experience, eighty-three per cent express frustration that their skills go unrecognised at work. When they lose one job, they find it difficult to find another; men over fifty remain unemployed longer than any other group. The Grattan Institute calculates that not using the skills and experience of middle-aged Australians costs the country around $10.8 billion every year. Older Australians are also accused of demanding more health and welfare resources than a shrinking base of younger people paying tax can cover (the ‘dependency ratio’). As the authors point out, the latest Intergenerational Report acknowledges that this will not, in fact, be the problem previously anticipated. A major reassessment of the career arc is required for the sake of the economy, as well as for the middle-aged themselves, they argue. In addition to tackling ageism and employment policies, there is an urgent need to innovate work practices, encouraging flexibility and retention of experience and skills through part-time ‘step down’ programs for older employees, such as the NAB ‘My Future’ initiative.

Patricia Edgar (photograph by James Braund)The second half of Peak is taken up by ten biographies of ‘Reinventors’, people who have made new lives for themselves, often after great adversity. They are an inspiring group, albeit from a particular, successful slice of society (one is the architect of the Edgars’ holiday home). This is the least satisfactory part of the book. Not everyone can be a dynamic entrepreneur or restaurateur. Not everyone can retire with a vineyard to keep them busy – and nor should they feel like less of a person because of this. I wish the authors had written more about those who suffer most during their middle years: the huge number with little education and few skills who struggle to find a job after fifty; the thirty per cent who own no property and live in poverty; the growing number who lead isolated, lonely lives. That would have been a different book, however.

Peak is a polemic as well as an overview: an evidence-based call to arms for baby boomers to reinvent middle age, just as they have done with every stage of life since they were teenagers. Patricia and Don Edgar bring a lifetime of experience, expertise, and wisdom to this authoritative and thought-provoking book. In the questions it asks and ideas it canvasses about how we lead our lives, this is a book for people of all the ages.