Over the last thirty years Mike Hepworth has had a major impact upon the development of gerontology. In particular, through his long collaboration with Mike Featherstone and, more recently, with Andrew Blaikie, he has established a widespread understanding that ageing is not just a socio-psycho-biological process but also a cultural-historical phenomenon that is central to how we think about life and the course of our individual lives. In this brief appreciation, I would like to comment on his study of images and in particular the mask of age.

The 'mask of age', an idea 'launched' in the 1980s (Featherstone and Hepworth, 1989: 148) has since become a popular motif in gerontological discourse. Its appeal and power lies in the clear distinction it establishes between body and self. The ageing body in the mirror is not a reflection of the self that sees it: rather, the visible body 'masks' the unseen self. Attractive though this idea is to those who wish to think positively about age, it is important to appreciate that Mike's concern was not to claim that the mask is in some sense 'real' and that the self is 'ageless', but rather that the idea of the mask is itself an image, no more and no less, one that reflects the tension between public appearance and private feelings.

With Mike Featherstone, he first developed this theoretical understanding through their shared appreciation of Erving Goffman's work on stigma. They appreciated its relevance for gerontological research into the reaction of the individual to the experience of growing older:

The painfulness of sudden stigmatisation can come not from the individual's confusion about his identity, but from knowing too well what he has become. (Goffman, 1968: 168; quoted in Featherstone and Hepworth, 1986: 86)

They argued that the image of the mask was – in the 1980s – evidence of a postmodernist attempt to undermine traditional age-related categories, and went on to discuss three specific issues: tensions associated with personal identity, resistance to ageist stereotypes, and the attempt of middle-aged people to construct 'a new public language to challenge and destabilise traditional cultural images of middle age' (Featherstone and Hepworth, 1989: 151).

More than ten years later, it is not difficult to argue that they were correct and that a new language does exist as third agers take on the challenges of post middle age. By this time, the focus of Mike's work had turned to popular fiction and, in 2000, he published his ground-breaking analysis of the images of age in contemporary novels (Hepworth, 2000). In the course of this he returned obliquely to the idea of the mask in commenting:

Stories of ageing involve an interplay between the external reality of everyday experience and our internal subjective worlds of desires, anxieties, fears and fantasies. In our private imaginary worlds we reflect on the ideas about ageing circulating around us in the wider culture. And these reflections are intimately related to our powers of self-expression and deepest emotions; it is important to remember that novels help people to feel as well as think. (Hepworth, 2000: 28)

In revisiting Mike's published work over the last three weeks, I have been struck by how well he uses such popular material that is readily available to all of us: everything from magazines to crime fiction to paintings in art galleries. I have been inspired to go out and check again for myself and there is indeed a powerful array of cultural images circulating around us.

At the same time, in his writing Mike builds bridges with mainstream sociological and historical literature, revealing the relevance for gerontology of writers such as Elias, Ariès, Bourdieu and Lyotard, and reminding us of the contributions to the discipline of Woodward, Wyatt Brown, Gubrium, Graebner, Henry and Stephens. It is through Mike that, over the years, I have checked out such disparate sources as the photographs of James Cotier, the novels of Anne Tyler and the writing of Margaret Morganroth Gullette. Through such networking and link-making, Mike was a great teacher and I am indebted to Mike for much of my education in the sociological and cultural aspects of age and ageing.

References
Goffman, E. (1968) Stigma: notes on the management of spoiled identity. Harmondsworth: Penguin.

Featherstone, M. and Hepworth, M. (1986) 'New lifestyles in old age?', in C. Phillipson, M. Bernard and P. Strang (eds), Dependency and Interdependency in Old Age: Theoretical Perspectives and Policy Alternatives London: Croom Helm. 85-94.

Featherstone, M. and Hepworth, M. (1989) 'Ageing and old age: reflections on the postmodern lifecourse', in B. Bytheway, T. Keil, P. Allatt and A. Bryman (eds), Becoming and Being Old: Sociological Approaches to Later Life London: Sage. 143-157.

Hepworth, M. (2000) Stories of Ageing Buckingham: Open University Press

A tribute to Mike Hepworth

Julia Johnson, The Open University.

I am not in a position to write about Mike’s life or to write authoratively about the significant contribution he made to sociology and to the sociology of ageing. But over the years, Mike became a very good friend and colleague. His last Christmas card to us (announcing his and Marian’s new address in York) included the message ‘Have a global, postmodern, season without a Master Narrative. Q: do these changes in cultural sensibility predict a rejuvenation of Santa Claus? [Marks will be deducted for any references to the Internet]’. This is simply an example of his humour which endeared him to all of us. When Mike died so suddenly, we (Bill Bytheway and I) found ourselves looking out the copy we have in our house of his book Blackmail, published in 1975, and the book he wrote with Mike Featherstone on Surviving Middle Age (1982). The latter made us laugh immediately, in particular the ‘mid life’ questionnaire they included at the end of the book ‘not to be completed by anyone under [the age of] 35’.

Mike Featherstone was a friend and colleague of Mike’s for 40 years. I hope that his eulogy at the funeral will be made available to the many people, like me, who admired and enjoyed Mike Hepworth and his work. It was not only moving, powerful and engaging but, of course, it made us laugh. Like many other people who got to know Mike through their work, I feel quite devastated by the hole he has left. He was so positive, receptive to ideas and encouraging. He made you feel that you had something to say and something to share. We will all feel his loss.

I first met Mike in Leeuwenhoorst, the Netherlands, at the 2nd International Conference on the Future of Adult Life that he and Mike Featherstone organised in 1989. I subsequently asked him to contribute a chapter on fiction and ageing to the Open University course reader, Ageing and Later Life. He contributed to other Open University courses and publications and became external examiner to K256 An Ageing Society. Although Mike lived and worked in Aberdeen, we had occasional long telephone conversations, frequently involving talk about novels. He introduced me to lots of unknowns ranging from Simon Brett to, more recently, Gordon Burn. His last book, Stories of Ageing, published by Open University Press, is a major contribution to gerontology.

In gerontology, there is a creative tension between those who are focused upon policy and practice and those who are more concerned with the existential dimensions of ageing. Mike, while supporting the former (particularly in Scotland), was more concerned in my view with the latter. He often talked about ‘deep’ old age and how it is experienced, as well as represented in literature.

My sympathies are with Marian, Mike’s wife, and their son Guy, his daughters and grandchildren, and with Mike Featherstone, his long-standing colleague and friend. Of course Mike had many other close colleagues and friends at Aberdeen University and further afield. Coming to terms with his absence is a challenge for us all.

Mike Hepworth: publications relating to age and later life

1980
(with M. Featherstone) 'Changing images of middle age', in M. Johnson (ed), Transitions in Middle and Later Life, (British Society of Gerontology)
1982
(with M. Featherstone) Surviving Middle Age (Oxford: Basil Blackwell)
(with R. Anderson) 'The problem of retirement: farmers in North-East Scotland', in R. Taylor, A. Gilmore (eds), Current Trends in British Gerontology (Aldershot: Gower)
'Sociological aspects of mid-life', in P.A. van Keep (ed), The Controversial Climacteric (Lancaster/Boston/The Hague: MTP Press)
(with M. Featherstone) 'Ageing and inequality: consumer culture and the new middle age', in D. Robbins, G. Day (eds) Rethinking Inequality (Aldershot: Ashgate)
(with M. Featherstone) 'Images de la Maturite', Gerontologie, 40, October 1982, No 41, January, 1983.
1983
(with M. Featherstone) 'The mid-lifestyle of George and Lynn: notes on a popular strip', Theory, Culture & Society, 1, 3, 85-92.
1985
(with M. Featherstone) 'The male menopause: lifestyle and sexuality', Maturitas, 7, 235-46.
(with M. Featherstone) 'The history of the male menopause: 1848-1936', Maturitas, 7, 249-57.
(with M. Featherstone) 'Changing images of retirement: an analysis of representations of ageing in the popular magazine, ‘Retirement Choice’', in C. Tilquin (ed), Systed 83.
1986
(with M. Featherstone) ''Doing a Gauguin’ and other escape routes from the mid-life crisis', Bulletin: European Society of Association Executives, 2, 3.
(with M. Featherstone) 'New lifestyles in old age?', in C. Phillipson, M. Bernard, P. Strang (eds), Dependency and Interdependency in Old Age: Theoretical Perspectives and Policy Alternatives (London: Croom Helm)
1987
(with M. Featherstone) 'The mid life phase', in G. Cohen (ed), Social Change and the Life Course (Tavistock : London)
1988
'Images of ageing: emerging lifestyles in middle age', in M Bernard (ed), Positive Approaches to Ageing: Leisure and Lifestyle in Later Life (Stoke on Trent: Beth Johnson Foundation)
Age Conscious?: An Illustrated Guide to Age Prejudice (Edinburgh: Age Concern Scotland)
1989
'Ageing and old age: reflections on the postmodern life course', in B. Bytheway, T. Keil, P. Allatt, A. Bryman (eds), Becoming and Being Old: Sociological Approaches to Later Life (London: Sage)
1990
(with M. Featherstone) 'Images of ageing', in J. Bond, P. Coleman (eds), Ageing in Society: An Introduction to Social Gerontology (London: Sage)
1991
'Positive ageing and the mask of age', Journal of Educational Gerontology, 6, 2, 93-101.
(with M. Featherstone) 'The mask of ageing and the post-modern life course', in M. Featherstone, M. Hepworth, B.S. Turner (eds), The Body: Social Process and Cultural Theory (London: Sage)
(with M. Featherstone, B.S. Turner, eds ) The Body: Social Process and Cultural Theory (London: Sage)
1993
(with M. Featherstone) 'Images of ageing', in J. Bond, P. Coleman, S. Peace (eds), Ageing in Society (second edition) (London: Sage)
'Old age in crime fiction', in J. Johnson, R. Slater (eds), Ageing and Later Life (London: Sage)
'Ageing and the emotions', Journal of Educational Gerontology, 8, 2, 75-85.
1995
(with M. Featherstone) 'Images of positive ageing: a case study of ‘Retirement Choice’ magazine', in M. Featherstone, A. Wernick (eds), Images of Ageing: Cultural Representations of Later Life (London: Routledge)
'Images of old age', in J. Coupland, J. F. Nussbaum (eds), Handbook of Communication and Ageing Research (New York: Erlbaum)
'Positive ageing: what is the message?', in R. Bunton, R. Burrows, S. Nettleton (eds), A Sociology of Health Promotion: Critical Analyses of Consumption, Lifestyle and Risk (London: Routledge)
'‘Wrinkles of vice and wrinkles of virtue’: the moral interpretation of the ageing body', in C. Hummel, C. Lalive D'Epinay (eds), Images of Ageing in Western Societies (Geneva: University of Geneva: Centre for Interdisciplinary Gerontology)
'Change and crisis in midlife', in B. Davey (ed), Birth to Old Age: Health in Transition (Buckingham: Open University Press)
'Where do grannies come from? Generations Review, 5.1, March, 2-4.
1996
(with M. Featherstone) 'Images of age', in J. E. Birren et al (eds), Encyclopaedia of Gerontology (San Diego: Academic Press)
'Consumer culture and social gerontology', Education and Ageing, 11.1, 19-30.
'‘William’ and the old folks: notes on infantilisation', Ageing and Society, 16, 423-441.
'The ageing self', in J. Walker (ed), Changing Concepts of Retirement (Aldershot: Arena)
1997
'Ageing and the emotions', in G.A. Bendelow, S.J. Williams (eds), Emotions in Social Life: Social Theories and Contemporary Issues (London: Routledge)
(with A. Blaikie) 'Representations of age in painting and photography', in A. Jamieson, S. Harper, C. Victor (eds), Critical Approaches to Ageing and Later Life (Buckingham: Open University Press)
1998
(with M. Featherstone) 'Ageing, the life course and the sociology of embodiment', in P. Higgs, G. Scambler (eds), Modernity, Medicine and Health: Issues Confronting Medical Sociology Towards 2000 (London: Routledge)
(with M. Featherstone) 'The male menopause: lay accounts and the cultural construction of midlife', in S. Nettleton, J. Watson (eds), Lay Perceptions of The Body (London: Routledge)
1999
'In defiance of an ageing culture', Ageing and Society, 19, 139-148.
2000
Stories of Ageing (Buckingham : Open University Press)
'‘William’ and the old folks', in E.W. Markson, L.A. Hollis-Sawyer (eds), Intersections of Ageing: Readings in Social Gerontology (Los Angeles CA: Roxbury Publishing Co)
(with M. Featherstone) 'Envelhecimento, tecnologia e o curso da vida incorporado', in G. Grin Debert, D.M. Goldstein (eds) Politicas Do Corpo e o Cursa Da Vida. (San Paulo, Brasil: Instituto de Estudos Economicos Sociais e Politicos)
2002
'Using ‘cultural products’ in researching images of ageing', in A. Jamieson, C.R. Victor (eds) Researching Ageing and Later Life. Buckingham, Philadelphia: Open University Press)
‘‘The changes and chances of this mortal life’: aspects of ageing in the fiction of Stanley Middleton', Ageing and Society, 21: 721-737.
'Royal ageing: the Queen Mother and Queen Victoria', Sociological Research Online, 7.1, May.
2003
'Ageing bodies/aged by culture', in J. Coupland, R. Gwyn (eds) Discourse, The Body and Identities (London: Palgrave)
'Generational consciousness and age identity: three fictional examples', in J. Edmunds, B.S. Turner (eds) Generational Consciousness, Narrative and Politics (Lanham MD: Rowman and Littlefield)
(with A. Blaikie, M. Holmes, A. Howson, D. Inglis, S. Sartain ) The Body: Critical Concepts (London and New York: Routledge), 4 volumes
2005
‘Framing old age: sociological perspectives on Victorian painting’, in D. Inglis, J. Hughson (eds), The Sociology of Art: Ways of Seeing (Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan)
(with M. Featherstone) 'Images of ageing: cultural representations of later life', in M. Johnson et al (eds), The Cambridge Handbook of Age and Ageing (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)