How did your interest in ageing begin, and why?

It almost certainly started when I worked for a year, prior to taking my undergraduate degree, in a psychiatric hospital which had a large number of elderly patients. I also spent some time working as a volunteer in a geriatric hospital when I was a student. This was back in the early 1970s and it was a pretty dreadful place – both settings in fact gave me a powerful sense of the idea of institutionalisation; a theme much in vogue then through the writings of Goffman and others. Working in the psychiatric hospital (in 1969) was especially interesting because it was on the cusp of a radical change in thinking about mental illness. My experience in the geriatric hospital though led me more towards older people and I did an analysis of their experiences inside the hospital for my undergraduate thesis.

What are your key areas of interest, and why?

My areas of interest have been fairly consistent, especially in terms of how people are affected by transitions associated with retirement, community change, and latterly, larger-scale events associated with migration and globalisation. Retirement has always been a particular interest because it is a fascinating period when you can see people’s lives having the potential to go in many different directions.

Please can you briefly outline your career?

My first ‘career’ was in farming where I had a number of jobs looking after (mainly) cows and pigs. This was pretty enjoyable; the experience of going to agricultural college less so. Indeed, my attempts to become a fully-fledged farm worker were fairly hopeless. Fortunately, this was 1967/68 and anything was possible. I discovered sociology which was very lucky indeed; the only thing I have ever been passably good at. I did a four year sociology degree (with community work training) at the then Birmingham Polytechnic - a fantastic place with great (predominantly Marxist) teaching. I was then offered a studentship at Durham University in the Sociology Department, completing a Ph.D. on the ‘Experience of Retirement: A Sociological Analysis’. Durham proved a wonderful experience with some fine staff; they were hugely supportive of the research I was doing. I then worked briefly at Birmingham University (on a study of twins), moving to Keele to lead on a project on pre-retirement education. Keele (through the work of Frank Glendenning) already had a track record for research on ageing (indeed Bill Bytheway had worked there for a period though before my time), so it seemed a good place to develop my interests.

What do you find is your biggest challenge in your current post?

I am current a PVC at Keele with responsibilities for academic development and learning and teaching. I guess the challenge is juggling this work with trying to maintain some sort of research profile. But doing the PVC work has been a good career move in the sense of introducing new interests; I needed something to push me in a new direction and the work has helped in that regard.

What’s been the biggest change in ageing research since you started?

Undoubtedly the big change is a sense of a community of people working in, and committed to, the study of social ageing. This was not really apparent when I started at least in the UK and we have made considerable strides in this respect.

What is the biggest change that you have contributed to, and in what way?

There is a more critical approach to policies and issues affecting older people and I hope that I have helped influence that in some way. It has been a good change from the very traditional approach characteristic of a couple of decades ago.

What do you like best about your work?

Tricky question but I usually try and write pieces which have a theoretical undercurrent which hopefully is accessible. I came to sociology through reading a now defunct journal called ‘New Society’ and have always been influenced by its approach of trying to give the social sciences the widest possible reach. I don’t think I have entirely succeeded but I am still trying on this score.

What do you like least about your work?

I am keen on trying to combine quantitative and qualitative work but never feel satisfied when I attempt this; I would like to mount another big project which tries to achieve this in a more robust way.

How did you become interested in the BSG?

I cannot remember how I heard about BSG but remember turning up in Manchester for my first conference – almost certainly in 1976 (I think this was prior to the name change which took place soon after). It was not, as I recall, a large conference; there was though a lot of enthusiasm for research into ageing and I was swept along by that.

What did you like most about being President of BSG?

Apart from the power and access to the funds, difficult to say. No seriously I was very proud to undertake the President’s job. BSG has given me fantastic support over the years. I would not have got going as a researcher without the encouragement from BSG members. It was great to put something back into the organisation.

What did you like least about being President of BSG?

You are never quite sure about what you have achieved; and it all seemed to go very quickly.

What was your greatest achievement as President of BSG?

We put together, with BGS and BSRA, the British Council for Ageing, time will tell whether that was a lasting achievement.

What do you want to achieve in your future career?

I would like to produce one substantial book which looks at how old age took shape over the twentieth century; it would combine historical and sociological approaches – really taking off from the work of Philip Abrams whose work I have always much admired.

Describe yourself in three words.

Driven, focused, work obsessed (sorry, that’s four)

What was the first record that you ever bought?

Probably the William Tell overture; but I moved onto other things

What is your favourite film, and why?

‘Five Easy Pieces’, a Jack Nicholson classic. It’s a wonderful film. I saw it first at Birmingham Arts Lab where I have happy memories of being educated about the wonders of the cinema. In the seventies I was there a couple of times a week; a great place.

What has been your favourite holiday destination, and why?

Most recently, near Sienna, Tuscany. Incredible.

Which book have you ever enjoyed reading the most, and why?

I simply could not narrow it down to one but I do return quite often to Olivia Manning’s The Balkan Trilogy; a terrific read with a marvellous sense of history and place.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

After failing agricultural college, I had an interview with a kind man employed (I cannot remember in what capacity) by Cornwall County Council (I was living near Truro at the time) who strongly advised me to go back to college and get some ‘A’ levels. I think I even got a grant. I was really fortunate, given my poor academic record up to that point, that someone had confidence in me.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given that you didn’t listen to?

There has been rather a lot of good advice I should have followed up; mostly from my wife who has much more sense and wisdom than me.