Is This the Book Every Bloke Over 60 Needs to Read?

Is This the Book Every Bloke Over 60 Needs to Read?

Let's be honest. We've all met one. The bloke at the bowls club who complains about everything. The neighbour who writes angry letters to the local paper about apostrophes. The husband who's retired but somehow crankier than ever. The grandfather who's checked out.

We've met them — and quietly, in our more honest moments, we've wondered if we're turning into one ourselves.

That's precisely the question former ABC broadcaster Geoff Hutchison started asking after hanging up his headphones in 2022 following a long career in radio and television journalism. Looking around at the men in his life — and taking a good hard look in the mirror — he set out to figure out why so many Australian blokes drift into grumpiness as they age, and more importantly, what on earth can be done about it.

The result is How Not to Become a Grumpy Old Bugger: A Bloke's Guide to Living a Better Life, published by Simon & Schuster, and it's one of the funnier and more useful books to come along for senior men in quite a while.

Hutchison isn't preachy about it. He talks to experts — doctors, psychologists, relationship counsellors — but weaves it all together with warmth, self-deprecating humour, and the kind of bloke-to-bloke honesty that actually lands. The book covers health, friendships, relationships, self-awareness, letting go of old regrets, and even making peace with a world that keeps changing whether we like it or not.

The message underneath all the laughs is actually quite moving: that the grumpy old bugger isn't born that way. He gets there gradually, through disengagement, stubbornness, and a quiet unwillingness to adapt. And the good news is, that slide is completely reversible.

Whether you're buying it for yourself, your partner, or quietly leaving it on your dad's kitchen table — it's a cracking read. Available in bookshops, online, and on Audible.

Have you read it? We'd love to hear what you thought in the comments below.