It's a funny old world :‘I was a nightmare, forever asking people to read something for me'

This week’s columnist: Comedian Dom Joly

- RICHARD BARBER

When I got to my 50s – I’m now 54 – I began to notice a gradual deterioration in my eyesight. I was holding menus at arm’s length, particularly in low light, in an attempt to read them. I’d end up using the torch on my mobile phone. Rather a passion-killer if you’re out on a romantic date.

And showering in hotels was a nightmare. So small was the typeface on bottles, I couldn’t tell whether they contained body wash or shampoo. The same is true on many bottles and packets of medicines.

When I was enlarging the font on my iPhone to a point where I was only getting something like 20 words on a page, I resolved to do something about it. So I took myself off to Specsavers, where I was diagnosed with presbyopia – the eyes’ inability to focus on anything close at hand.