The eight autobiographies are very rich in detail, exploring poignant and tragic incidents in the authors' lives as well as the aspects that provide them with joy or meaning ... Growing Old with the Welfare State will be of great importance to those working on experiences of ageing, citizenship, and welfare in Britain in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It will also be highly valuable to historians and sociologists of emotions, intergenerational relations, and time.

Histoire sociale/Social History

An important intervention in a youth-centered culture.

Journal of British Studies

Growing Old with the Welfare State tells us what it is like to grow old in modern Britain. Each chapter focuses on the experience of a single individual recorded over a period of twenty years. Each shows that growing old is an active process, that can be marked by love and unexpected opportunity as well as by loss and anxiety. But the book offers more than a series of beautifully moving individual histories - it also shows us the complex ways in which age, historical context and generational identity work together to frame attitude and experience.

Claire Langhamer, Professor of Modern British History, University of Sussex, UK

This rare use of individual narratives provides new and rich insights into the ageing process and how, as we age, we make not only our own but, also, collective history.This revealing narrative account successfully weaves individual life stories with the broad sweep of political and cultural history, and is essential reading for those interested in ageing and the welfare state.

Alan Walker, Professor of Social Policy and Social Gerontology, The University of Sheffield, UK