‘100-Year Life’ hits a high note

The 100 Year Life, a book co-authored by Lynda Gratton, Professor of Management Practice in Organisational Behaviour, and Andrew J. Scott, Professor of Economics at LBS, has achieved more than one million sales, and is now available in 15 languages.

The book – The 100-Year Life – Living and Working in an Age of Longevity, to give it its full title – was published in June 2016 by Bloomsbury Publishing. It outlines the challenges and intelligent choices that all of us, of any age, need to make in order to turn greater life expectancy into a gift and not a curse.

The book has received a tremendous reception and around the world, in particular attracting significant attention in Japan and China. The book has also won numerous accolades in the Asia region, including second prize in the 2017 Business Book Award of Japan, and awarded ‘Best Book’ by Eslite, a leading bookstore in Taiwan. It was shortlisted for the FT Business Book of the Year Award in 2016 and was even turned into a Manga book, a popular form of Japanese publication that uses pictures and artwork to convey a narrative in the style of comics.

Addressing the importance of the issue of longevity, Professor Scott said:

“Every country is having to deal with the consequences of longer lives and ageing societies. But what I find fascinating about longevity is how it’s an aggregate trend that impacts each of us individually. It is wonderful to see so many people across so many countries engaging with this agenda and pondering the implications of their own “100-year life’.”

Professor Gratton, speaking about her joy in achieving this publishing milestone, says:

“When we wrote The 100-Year Life, we had hoped to make a difference to the debate on how people make the most of long lives - but frankly we did not know whether we would.

“What’s been extraordinary is the breadth of readership - in Japan, China and across Europe people of all ages have bought the book, recommended it to others and talked about it in book groups.

“Together we bring different perspectives on the key issue of how we adapt to longer lives. Andrew’s focus is on the economic and financial and mine is on the psychological but together we offer a comprehensive picture of the changes required if we are to individually seize the opportunities of longer lives.

“Over hundreds of hours of debate, we honed our joint point of view - and in doing so touched many of the aspects people worried most about.

“We are both really proud of what we have achieved and very grateful to LBS for their support.”