It has taken us a surprisingly long time to realise that, just like everyone else, autistic people grow old too. This issue of RASD marks the first ever special issue of a scientific journal devoted to ASD in later life - over 70 years since the first clinical description of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in children. The articles in this issue are testament to how seriously scientists and clinicians are now taking the challenges of ageing and autism, with contributions ranging from the identification of neural networks underlying verbal fluency to the development of appropriate measures of quality of life.