How did your interests in ageing begin, and why?
Serendipitously! When my children were very young I was looking for part time work and found myself, by luck rather than design, working as an interviewer for a poverty survey run by the late Peter Townsend. I then became a researcher for the follow up survey which included a focus on older and disabled people. I chose ageing since I was involved with children and education through my family and wanted a different area for my work. When Peter Townsend visited Stirling University a few years ago, I mentioned to him that it was through him that I got into this line of work. He was delighted and I was touched that he actually remembered the project from years ago. My interests in ageing developed and continued to the present day.

What are your key areas of interest, and why?
My key areas of interest have been care of frail older people and comparative research. This began when I was commissioned to write a book on community care, a cross national comparative study. As I had started out as a linguist, I enjoyed combining social research and languages through comparative studies in European countries. A focus on frail older people in care homes developed through a cross-national study on care for people with dementia and continued with our ESRC Growing Older programme research Exploring perceptions of quality of life of frail older people during and after their transition to institutional care. Since retirement I have been involved with a local University of the Third Age (U3A) project bringing cultural activities into care homes for older people.

Please can you briefly outline your career?
I studied French and German at the University of Leicester and taught French in secondary schools for a few years. After having children and living abroad I returned to London and worked on the poverty research project by Peter Townsend. I decided to stay in social research so studied Social Administration at the London School of Economics (LSE), and subsequently worked on various research projects at LSE and the Policy Studies Institute (PSI). To enhance my research qualifications I then undertook the MSc in Social Research at the University of Surrey. I worked as Policy Officer at the Centre for Policy on Ageing for a few years then made another big move when I came to Scotland to take up an academic post at the University of Stirling. Here I taught and researched in Sociology and Social Policy, specialising in Social Gerontology, until I retired four years ago. I am still loosely attached to the University as an honorary senior research fellow.

How did you become involved in BSG Scotland?
I have been a member of BSG since the 1980s and attended most BSG conferences since then. As I always enjoyed the friendly atmosphere of BSG, I wanted to get more involved with the society. I led the organising team for the BSG 2001 conference in Stirling. I was also elected as BSG Honorary Secretary elect, and then served my years as Secretary and Past Secretary. I was very interested when Mary Gilhooly started BSG Scotland in 2002. It was a great idea to have a local group within BSG to organise events in Scotland, as people from Scotland often find it difficult to attend BSG events in the south of England. After being a member of the organising group of BSG Scotland for a couple of years I became co-ordinator of the group and continued in this role as I thought I would have more time in retirement (a fallacy!), I am looking for volunteers to take on this role.

What do you find is your biggest challenge in your current post?
Now that I am retired I have lots of challenges, but different ones from those faced when I was working full time at the University. My most challenging work now is as a volunteer adviser at the Citizens Advice Bureau, as there are many complex issues to resolve and they are never simple or predictable. The next biggest challenge is learning Mandarin with my local U3A group.

What do you like best about your work?
As a retired social gerontologist I was well placed to plan for retirement and now I like being able to do a range of different activities, as this provides a good balance to life in retirement. The activities include physical (gym, swimming, yoga and walking); grandparenting; supporting research in an advisory capacity; promoting dissemination of research through BSG Scotland; learning new languages; and travel.

What do you like least about your work?
Before retirement what I liked least about my work was having too many deadlines and demands to meet.

What's the best piece of advice you've ever been given?
My dad always used to say, as he cleaned his glasses: ‘You can’t be optimistic with a misty optic!’

What's the best piece of advice you've ever been given that you didn't listen to?
I’ve often been told that I should feign incompetence, so I would not get asked to take on so many responsibilities. But I never did get the hang of that!

Which country or city would you like to see?
The states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka in Southern India will be my next big trip.

What book are you reading at the moment?
Clara by Janice Galloway, a novel based on the life of musician Clara Schumann.

What three things would you take to a desert island with you, and why?
Photos of my family to keep them close to me. A solar powered world radio to keep up with the news. Plenty of writing materials to keep me busy.

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