Aaron Sillis and Richard Winsor in Matthew Bourne's Dorian Gray [Guardian/Murdo MacLeod]

"You have a portrait in your attic," a friend exclaimed.  "You were at death's door, and now look at you."

My surprising recovery, however, is due entirely to the kind supportive words of you, my dear friends and readers.  Even those who were busy packing for that annual social gathering in Palm Springs, "Hot 'N Dry," for which many have been on a strict regimen of working out and extreme dieting in order to look their best poolside, took time out from their strenuous schedules to wish me well.  

"The secret to achieving the ideal body," an acquaintance confided recently, "is to develop an eating disorder."

Or have a portrait that ages for you.

One friend who's succeeded especially well with preparing himself for his appearance in nothing but tattoos, six pack and Speedo is having a photographer document the results.  "22 years I've worked at this body," he admitted, "and I'm finally now getting asked out on dates.  At the gym.  That never happens, you know."

I do know.  

As for the 1904 devotees amongst you, no, Oscar died in 1900, but Dorian Gray is all about staying young and fit and beautiful and never growing old, rather like Peter Pan, which did premiere in 1904.  

And I am reminded of the opening words of G. K. Chesterton's The Napoleon of Notting Hill, published by John Lane in 1904:

"The human race, to which so many of my readers belong, has been playing at children's games from the beginning, and will probably do it till the end, which is a nuisance for the few people who grow up."

But who really wants to grow up?