Prue Leith: How to grow old without fear

The interview opens with Prue Leith reflecting on how she found teenage years far more stressful than old age, framing aging as a liberating experience. When asked how she would change the world, she immediately advocates for mandatory cooking education in schools, arguing that teaching one generation of children to cook and enjoy healthy food would solve the obesity crisis by passing those habits down. She references recent government food standards in schools and a free cookery program run by Leith's Education for state primary schools as reasons for cautious optimism.

On the topic of her own diet, Prue admits she eats healthily and cooks from scratch but drinks too much and has given up trying to lose weight. She discusses her husband's success with weight-loss injections while her own attempt failed because she severely under-ate during the course. She defends baking as a gateway into cooking more broadly, pushing back on the idea that teaching children to bake automatically gives them a sweet tooth.

The bulk of the conversation centers on her book, which she describes as a series of rants born from frustration with people treating old age as inherently terrible. She argues that old age — which she defines as liberating rather than by any fixed number — brings freedom from caring what others think, the guilt-free afternoon nap, and the ability to choose only work you love. She acknowledges that her positive experience is largely a product of luck: good health, financial security, a happy marriage, and healthy family. She is candid that her perspective may be irritating to those whose old age is marked by loneliness, illness, or poverty.

Prue criticizes consumer culture for ignoring older spenders despite their numbers and purchasing power, and champions wearing bright colors as a mood-lifter at any age. She discusses the concept of 'death clearing,' intergenerational socializing, and the societal tendency to separate age groups in ways that breed loneliness among the elderly.

A significant portion is devoted to assisted dying. Prue supports it on compassionate grounds, citing roughly 7,000 people per year dying miserably in NHS hospitals who wish to die but cannot legally receive help. She dismisses fears of coercion and a 'slippery slope,' pointing to evidence from the 30-40 countries where it is legal. She is sharply critical of House of Lords peers who she says deliberately tabled over a thousand amendments to kill the private member's bill by running out parliamentary time, calling it cynical and undemocratic. She reveals she made a documentary with her son Danny Krueger, who opposes the bill, and that despite their disagreement he told her he would hold her hand if she ever chose assisted dying.

The interview closes warmly on the subject of love, with Prue describing meeting her husband John at 70 and saying it felt exactly like being 17 again — composing and deleting texts, waiting for him to call. She waited five years for him to propose rather than ask herself, admitting she feared rejection. She ends by expressing genuine happiness and gratitude while acknowledging she risks sounding smug.