Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been a columnist in a national magazine, book reviewer on a daily newspaper, journalist on a small rural paper, commercial blogger for hire, copy-editor, and critiquer, usually alongside more conventional roles in the not entirely thrilling world of corporate finance. In my fifties, I took a belated gap year courtesy of a good redundancy package and started writing full-time under a couple of different names, mainly EJ Lamprey but here as Clarissa. The gap year never really ended . . . At the heart of all my books is the exuberant celebration of finding in autumn the best season of our lives.


I wrote

The Christmas Caper

By E.J. Lamprey,

Book cover of The Christmas Caper

What is my book about?

Being pretty much retired, well-off, active, lively, sociable, a frequent traveler, and based at an age-friendly community for similar free…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of How You Stand, How You Move, How You Live: Learning the Alexander Technique to Explore Your Mind-Body Connection and Achieve Self-Mastery

E.J. Lamprey Why did I love this book?

I actually believe the Alexander technique should be taught in schools from the start, to become a lifelong habit to improve lifelong health, but it’s never too late to start. While there’s no denying it is best taught hands-on, there aren’t enough teachers out there. There are many books but this one has a lovely holistic approach. Even better, if you’re lucky enough to have a practitioner within reach, the book adds to your understanding and to the benefit of your sessions. Win, win.  

By Missy Vineyard,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked How You Stand, How You Move, How You Live as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The Alexander Technique (AT) is a remarkably simple but powerful method for learning to skillfully control how your brain and body interact, allowing you to better coordinate your movements while increasing the accuracy of your mind's thoughts and perceptions. Now, in How You Stand, How You Move, How You Live , leading Alexander Technique master teacher Missy Vineyard sheds a completely fresh light on this revolutionary method and, in the process, offers path-breaking insight into the mind-body connection. Vineyard thoroughly explains and teaches the central skills of the AT through simple self-experiments, and she offers engaging stories of students in…


Book cover of How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free: Retirement Wisdom That You Won't Get from Your Financial Advisor

E.J. Lamprey Why did I love this book?

We live in expensive times, our lives could last longer than expected after our earning years have ended:  hands up anyone who has had the 3 am heebie-jeebies about a future in which one is very old and impoverished. We’ll never be able to retire . . . the huge charm of this book, for me, is the emphasis is less on storing away pennies than on embracing the future, and while I’ll grant he says that perhaps a little too often, sometimes you do have to catch people’s attention. There are no miraculous solutions, but there’s good advice and a very wholesome shift in attitude to take on board.  

By Ernie J. Zelinski,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free offers inspirational advice on how to enjoy life to its fullest. The key to achieving an active and satisfying retirement involves a great deal more than having adequate financial resources; it also encompasses all other aspects of life -- interesting leisure activities, creative pursuits, physical well-being, mental well-being, and solid social support.

World-class author and innovator Ernie J. Zelinski guides you to:

Gain courage to take early retirement; in fact, the earlier the better. Put money in proper perspective so that you don't need a million dollars to retire. Generate purpose in your…


Book cover of Before the Coffee Gets Cold

E.J. Lamprey Why did I love this book?

There are some offbeat reasons I picked this book, and one is that if you’re around the Indian Summer age you might have got into a reading rut, and it’s an intriguing rut-breaker, nicely translated but evoking a different world and way of thinking. The main reason, though, is, indirectly, baggage, the releasing of. The premise of the novel allows patrons of the café to go back in time to a previous meeting, and say what they wish they’d said at the time. It won’t change events, and they can stay only until their coffee in real time gets cold. As a perspective twister, it’s unique.  

By Toshikazu Kawaguchi,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked Before the Coffee Gets Cold as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

*NOW AN LA TIMES BESTSELLER*

*OVER ONE MILLION COPIES SOLD*

*AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER*

If you could go back in time, who would you want to meet?

In a small back alley of Tokyo, there is a café that has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. Local legend says that this shop offers something else besides coffee—the chance to travel back in time.

Over the course of one summer, four customers visit the café in the hopes of making that journey. But time travel isn’t so simple, and there are rules that must be followed. Most…


Book cover of Old Age Comes at a Bad Time: Wit and Wisdom for the Young at Heart

E.J. Lamprey Why did I love this book?

It’s a little book of quotes, the sort of book you could keep in the guest loo (if you don’t mind losing your guests for half an hour), but it is stuffed full of oomph and I’ve carted it with me through three migrations because it has been giving me quotes, when I needed something pithy and to the point, for thirty years. I really hope it is still in print because nobody’s getting their hands on my copy. Relevance to my theme? Picked at random – “the first forty years of life gives us the text, the next thirty years supply the commentary” (Arthur Schopenhauer). “If I had my life to live again, I’d make the same mistakes – only sooner”. (Tallulah Bankhead)   

Book cover of Dave Barry Turns 50

E.J. Lamprey Why did I love this book?

We’ve outgrown vaulting over five-barred gates, running up mountains, drinking all night, and springing bright-eyed from our beds, and so what? For anyone in denial, or clinging stubbornly to youth, Dave is the Baby Boomer to point out the stark realities. He’s funny but he’s ruthless. Fifty’s not the new thirty. It’s fifty. The reason I recommend it is that it can be hard to let go and you’ll waste precious autumn if you don’t accept the inevitable, and move on with a spring in your step into what I have found to be the best period of all. Laughing helps. Laughing always helps.  

By Dave Barry,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Dave Barry Turns 50 as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist comes a celebration of the aging process. Not just Dave's, but that of the whole Baby Boom Generation--those millions of us who set a standard for whining self-absorption that will never be equaled, and who gave birth to such stunning accomplishments as Saturday Night Live!, the New Age movement, and call waiting. Here Dave pinpoints the glaring signs that you've passed the half-century mark:

- You are suddenly unable to read anything written in letters smaller than Marlon Brando.
- You have accepted the fact that you can't possibly be hip. You don't even know…


Explore my book 😀

The Christmas Caper

By E.J. Lamprey,

Book cover of The Christmas Caper

What is my book about?

Being pretty much retired, well-off, active, lively, sociable, a frequent traveler, and based at an age-friendly community for similar free spirits in lovely Scotland, had been great for Edge and her friends: and then along came Covid19. After months of Katryn's draconian restrictions, with Christmas 2020 closing in, it wasn't surprising that boredom was driving the neighbors nuts. Are they imagining things, though, or was there really something off-kilter at Grasshopper Lawns?

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Love Love TV

By Gabriel Ruesso,

Book cover of Love Love TV

Gabriel Ruesso

New book alert!

What is my book about?

Christopher Jope was supposed to be the next great celebrity heartthrob. But then he was demoted to third wheel in the supernatural throuple romance he starred in years ago. Now, he’s a B-list celebrity at best, struggling to find success in his work or love in his personal life. 

Things are looking up, though, when Christopher is tapped to be next season's star of the best trashy reality show on television. In Star x Lovers, ten bachelors and ten bachelorettes compete to try and win Christopher's heart and mind. The show is run by the charming yet jaded host Ted…

Love Love TV

By Gabriel Ruesso,

What is this book about?

Love Love TV is a 1st person bisexual romance novel that quickly morphs into a 'whodunnit' murder mystery. Fans of Agatha Christie meets Black Mirror will love this modern story about love, loss, reality TV, and being so famous it hurts.

Star x Lovers is the best trash reality show on TV. Twenty bachelors and bachelorettes on a gorgeous island try to win the heart of Christopher Jope, the B-list celebrity from an old, popular supernatural teenage series. Love Love TV, the secretive television network behind Star x Lovers, does a masterful job at getting as much drama out of…


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