With news of volcanic ash causing disruption to flights across the UK, regular readers of Mature Times will be reminded of a story we originally published in 2007. Betty Tootell was aboard a British Airways 747 in 1982 when all the engines failed - clogged up by volcanic ash from an eruption. 263 passengers and crew were sent hurtling to their doom, but miraculously, they escaped. Here Betty tells her amazing story of survival.

It seems we do everything we can to avoid saying its name, referring to it euphemistically as “going to meet one’s maker”, “kicking up daisies” and “six feet under”. Shakespeare, before Python, said we “shuffle off this mortal coil” and my namesake referred to it as “that dreamless slumber”.

However much we choose to ignore the topic it, along with taxes, is one of life’s greatest inevitabilities. For us to think that if we banish it to the deepest recess of our minds, we will escape the trauma and difficulties which accompany this most challenging subject is both naive and reckless.

The independent reading charity Booktrust is launching its first project which aims to encourage over 60s to engage in reading and creative writing.

The project, entitled Bookbite, aims to inspire people aged 60 and over in England to take up reading and writing to experience the positive affects that they can offer for emotional health and wellbeing.

Tony Watts take a look at two very different books  that would make ideal Christmas presents: "Cardus: Celebrant of Beauty" and "The Best Of Jennings"

Do you ever feel lost for words? The solution in ‘Mary Poppins’ was to exclaim ‘superfragilisticexpialidocious’ – but there are alternatives. And Tony Watts has just discovered the book with all the answers.

 The eccentric, curiously endearing central character, Ignatius J Reilly, is the remarkable comic creation of a tragic young talent.  Both ill at ease in the society they inhabit, like the painted bird, both author and protagonist are marginalised, rejected by that society (Toole, when his work found no willing publisher, committed suicide at the age of 32).  The title suggests that both felt they were up against a confederacy of dunces running the institutions with which they were obliged to engage.

This book makes perfect holiday reading, being neither too light nor too heavy, and encompassing mystery, murder and....gardening!