I remember the good old days. We had proper music back then, not like that modern rubbish you get now. The best home computer had rubber keys and quite properly refused to perform any function that was remotely useful. The summers were longer, crime was lower and you could buy a luxury yacht for less than the price of a modern one-bedroom council flat.

All right, maybe that last bit isn't strictly true. The point is that even those of us who are a long way off from the siren call of toupees and Viagra still think fondly back to our childhood. This tendency can be reflective of something a little less innocent than pure nostalgia. It is a symptom of the modern world’s obsession with youth and staying young and of the demonising of the aging process.

‘Misspent Youth’ is a novel that is deeply concerned with this worrying global trend. It is the story of a man named Jeff Baker who invents the ultimate method of information storage and inventing it, becomes responsible for vast changes in the world’s media and technology. He is chosen to become the first subject of an experimental medical treatment that reverts the aging process, leaving him with the body of a twenty-year-old (insert smutty joke here).

Novelist Hamilton then chooses to only lightly deal with the issue of immortality. He concentrates less on the psychological impact that the process has on Jeff and more on the tide of emotion and envy his transformation causes in other people. This envy is encoded within the very fabric of Hamilton's near future society. It is a world where people routinely use 'genoproteins' to hold back the ageing process, at least cosmetically. It is a world highly focused on image and appearance, which is depicted as being a consequence of the now unlimited capacity for the transfer of information.

This results in a story based almost entirely around the human drama such a situation would produce. Jeff's teenage son has to learn to deal with a father who is young, vibrant and, most horrifyingly of all, sexually attractive to women. His young wife has to cope with the change in their marital situation, from old codger to active todger in just over a year. Jeff's elderly sister finds herself staring at a living photograph, a brother with a face from the past.

I must admit that however much I enjoyed the mini-soap opera that Hamilton creates, it did leave me slightly frustrated at points. Although the book is extremely well-written and constantly involving, it is completely character driven. This occasionally puts it in danger of neglecting its original concept. The psychological impact of the change on Jeff is only minimally examined.

It is as if Jeff's mind reverts along with his body. The most detailed examination of the mental consequences concentrate almost exclusively on sex and sexuality, which while undoubtedly being of key importance in life are not the only subjects worth exploring.

The social implications are looked at in even less detail. Gasp as Jeff has a bit of difficulty in relating to his pensioner mates. Be amazed as the world greets Jeff with a bit of a party and then promptly forgets about him. Not really jaw-droppingly incisive stuff then.

Let’s not get too negative though. The fact remains that while this may not be the studied glimpse into a possible future we might wish for, it is still vastly entertaining. Jeff's transformation into a youthful Peter Stringfellow is an interesting one and the effect it has on his son Tim is devastating. Several times, I found myself biting my knuckles and muttering to the book, 'No, no, no you just can't do that!'

In fact, the portrayal of the main characters throughout the novel is impeccable and is one of the most impressive features of the book. We are even treated to scenes involving an aged Graham Joyce (spankingly good real world author) who is furious at the way freedom of information killed off his career as a novelist. Anyone who has read Joyce would find little difficulty in imagining him as an aging revolutionary!

The imagining of Britain as but one piece of a larger centralised European Union is interesting yet not entirely original, as this concept is appearing in many near-future novels set in the UK. However, Hamilton does benefit from the use of this cliché. It forms the basis for one of the novels most interesting sub-plots, wherein the British Prime Minister uses Jeff as a tool to advance his own political career in Europe.

This provides a much needed broadening of the scope of the novel and begins exploring an area that is otherwise underdeveloped. The fact is that immortality is a state that is lusted after by everyone and possessing the technology to effectively induce it would be akin to owning the plans for a revolutionary weapon. Every self-made dictator would be after it. In Hamilton's book, it's more like actually possessing the weapon itself. It’s just another means of gaining respect and Jeff is forced to be the visible aspect of this attention seeking behaviour.

It's true that ‘Misspent Youth’ won't be a key reference point for future fictional examinations of aging as it simply doesn't offer anything new on the topic. Despite that I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it as a fun summer read and it certainly constitutes yet another reason why I should finally get around to reading Hamilton's ‘Nights Dawn’ trilogy.

In the mean time, it’s two spoonfuls of cod liver oil for me and a nice cup of cocoa before bedtime. Oooh, my lumbago’s killing me, mumble mumble ...