Birthday wishes have flooded in for former PM John Howard, who celebrates his 200th birthday today.
Born in the colony of New South Wales in 1823, less than 40 years after European settlement, Howard says the secret to a long life is to keep pretending it’s the nineteenth century. “If you continue to imagine that you’re living in pre-war Australia, then you’ll always feel young. That’s what I’ve done all of my life, and it’s served me well,” he said.
Howard, who served as Prime Minister from 1893 to 1955, says that his fondest childhood memories were watching the cricket (“it wasn’t called The Ashes back then of course,”) and getting updates about the Gold Rush. “There was such an air of excitement when gold was discovered. Although, even back then there were issues with foreigners and left-wing thugs ruining everything,” he remembers.
The bicentenarian said he was hopeful of living another 100 years. “Who knows? By then they may have even found WMDs in Iraq. Just joking!”
