Charlotte Greenhalgh - Aging in Twentieth-Century Britain

My professional life has been transformed by generous mentors, and I am deeply grateful to each of them. Caroline Daley gave me the confidence and skills that I needed to get started as an academic. Matt Houlbrook turned his intelligence and creativity to the task of graduate supervision with focus and endless energy. Clare Corbould showed me how to approach academic life with vision and strategy. James Vernon has provided constant encouragement and guidance since he first heard me speak about this project in 2012. His collaborative approach to editing transformed the experience of being a first-time book author and made it enjoyable.

While writing this book, I benefited from the insights and generosity of friends and colleagues at the University of Auckland, the University of Oxford, and Monash University. I am grateful to Christopher Hilliard for his recommendations for supervisors and mentors in Britain and Australia. My warmest thanks go to my colleagues at Monash for supporting the publication of this book and for sharing their smarts. Bain Attwood, Branka Bogdan, Megan Cassidy-Welch, Adam Clulow, Daniella Doron, Scott Dunbar, Kat Ellinghaus, David Garrioch, Michael Hau, Carolyn Holbrook, Peter Howard, Carolyn James, Diana Jeske, Julie Kalman, Ernest Koh, Paula Michaels, Ruth Morgan, Kate Murphy, Kathleen Neal, Seamus OHanlon, Susie Protschky, Noah Shenker, Agnieszka Sobocinska, Taylor Spence, Claire Spivakovsky, Rachel Standfield, Al Thomson, and Christina Twomey, you taught me much about writing. Josh Specht, thank you for sharing the book-writing journey and for your enthusiasm and empathy. Genevieve de Pont, thank you for the pots of tea, for letting me work at your dining room table for so many hours, and for the inspiring conversations. I offer my wholehearted thanks to Toby Harper, Deborah Montgomerie, Matt Houlbrook, Erika Hanna, and Clare Corbould, who each read the full manuscript of this book and equipped me to write the final version (and the final final version). Jonathan Burgess, thank you for the meticulous proofreading; your attention to detail when reading footnotes is just one of your excellent qualities as a sibling. My thanks also go to Sarah-Ann Burger, Anne Holloway, and Mel Thorn, who solved last-minute dilemmas born of distance.

The research for this project was made possible by funding from the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission. Green Templeton College at the University of Oxford and the Center for British Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, provided additional financial support. A grant from the School of Philosophical, Historical, and International Studies at Monash University subsidized publication of the books images.

My thanks go to the archivists at the University of Sussex, the University of Essex, and the United Kingdom Data Archive, who helped me source the archival material that is at the heart of this project. I would like to give special thanks to Nigel Cochrane from the University of Essex and to Bethany Morgan from the United Kingdom Data Archive for their generous and knowledgeable assistance. I am grateful to Cond Nast Publications, the Norman Parkinson Archive, and others for allowing me to publish the images in this book. I thank Baroness Jean Corston for her generous permission to use photographs that were taken by Peter Townsend. I thank Emma Gleadhill for her determined work arranging image permissions and Bethany White for locating images in Womans Own and Womens Weekly.

I am fortunate to have been able to present versions of this research at conferences and seminars at the Max Planck Institute of Human Development, the University of Melbourne, the University of Waikato, the Institute of Historical Research at the University of London, the University of Auckland, the University of Birmingham, the North American Conference on British Studies, the University of Queensland, the University of Brighton, the University of Manchester, Monash University, the University of Oxford, and the University of California, Berkeley. My thanks go to the organizers, participants, and audiences at these wonderful events. I am grateful for visiting fellowships at the Max Planck Institute of Human Development and the University of Oxford.

Selina Todd and Michael Roper were among the first to advise me about publishing this research. Kate Fisher, Claire Langhamer, and Jon Lawrence were generous readers of the manuscript. I give my sincere thanks to Bradley Depew, Niels Hooper, Dore Brown, Genevieve Thurston, Victoria Baker, and the rest of the team at the University of California Press. I have relished the chance to work with you.

My daughter, Penelope, was five months old when I signed the contract for this book. I finished the manuscript thanks to a huge amount of support from my family. I am grateful to Scott for parenting our baby while I wrote. Penelopes grandparents provided countless hours of childcare. My heartfelt thanks go to Vicki and Geoff Burgess and to Laurel and Rodney Greenhalgh. This book is dedicated to you.