Life writing holds real potential for historians seeking to understand the construction of narrative identity, and enables a deeper understanding of histories of the everyday and lived experience. It provides a glimpse into personal relationships, experiences of work and leisure, and childhood memories. Using the life writing of eight Mass Observers and University of the Third Age participants, Growing Old with the Welfare State: Eight British Lives explores the process of ageing in modern Britain. Working with the life writing of participants over a twenty‐year period, it is a powerful history of individual experience that sheds vital light on the changing expectations and experiences of ageing at the turn of the twenty‐first century.

The central premise of the book is the argument that ageing should not be considered a fixed state. As the authors argue, ‘ageing is a continual process that cannot be reduced to the essence of one particular phase of post‐retirement lifestyle considered in contrast against a supposed final phase of decline and death’ (p. 3). The combined effects of the welfare state mean that Britain now has a significant percentage of the population who are active and healthy long after retirement, something that has had a considerable effect on the experience of ‘growing old’. It is this lived experience of ageing that the authors are able to explore, providing not only vital insight into changing ideas about what it means to be ‘old’, but also personal, and in places deeply poignant, reflections on life in modern Britain.

Growing Old with the Welfare State utilises the reflective writing of eight men and women, born between 1921 and 1943. Generational difference is highlighted as a central point of separation by the authors, and plays an important role in the analysis throughout. In exploring the attitudes and experiences of those who were born in the interwar years as compared to those who were born during the Second World War, the book is able to present a ‘multi‐layered account’ (p. 4) of the shift towards new ways of living in the years after the 1960s. The book presents extended passages from the participants’ writing, with eight of the ten chapters focused on one participant each. In this way the book is a welcome addition to social histories of modern Britain that provide shorter extracts from Mass Observation, leaving little room to become acquainted with the individuals themselves. Over the course of 145 pages we are given the space to get to know each participant well, in many cases following their reflections over a period of almost twenty years.

Readers wanting in‐depth analysis of the many ways in which the welfare state aided British citizens as they aged will have to look elsewhere. As readers we are given the space to reflect on the lives of the participants at length, and the main body of the book, aside from some brief biographical details, has little in the way of analysis from the authors. This analysis can be found instead in the opening and closing chapters, drawing together the key themes that emerge from the eight different narratives. However, this observation should not be taken as a criticism. It is the very personal approach of this book that makes it such a powerful read. The greatest strength of the book is its use of extended extracts. We are offered the opportunity to explore how an individual's idea of age changes as they age themselves, providing a fluid and often contradictory narrative. We first meet ‘George’ in 1992 aged 70, ten years into retirement, and follow his reflections on ageing and lifestyle until 2010, a month before his 89th birthday. This linear use of life writing provides unique insight into the construction and reconstruction of opinion.

The book succeeds in its aims to demonstrate the need for a more fluid approach to the concept of ageing. However, in places the book would benefit from providing the reader with more detailed guidance through the extracts. The introduction to the book orients the reader within existing work on ageing and Mass Observation, while the first and sixth chapters introduce the interwar and wartime generation, providing bibliographic details and outlining key themes such as love and companionship. While the use of extended extracts rightly places the participants’ voices, rather than the authors’, at the centre of the study, I found I was often turning back to the introductory chapters for a reminder of key themes when reading individual testimonies. This is the only negative in what was otherwise a stimulating and engaging book.

Reading Growing Old with the Welfare State is a deeply personal experience. We follow the participants through the deaths of family members and loved ones, marriage breakdowns, and experiences of caring. The authors have successfully presented a history of ageing in Britain that is rich in detail and emotion, while grounded clearly within the major social and cultural milestones of the last century. This book provides a vital reassessment of the lived experience of ageing in modern Britain, and demonstrates the importance of cultural and social histories of the welfare state.

对于试图理解叙事身份建构的历史学家来说，生活写作具有真正的潜力，并且可以使人们对日常生活和生活经历的历史有更深入的了解。它提供了个人关系，工作和休闲经历以及童年记忆的一瞥。利用八位大众观察家和第三年龄大学参与者的生平著作，随着福利国家的变老：《八英国生活》探索了现代英国的衰老过程。与二十年来参与者的生活写作一起工作，是个人经历的强大历史，这为二十一世纪初的不断变化的期望和衰老经历提供了重要的启示。

该书的中心前提是，不应将老化视为固定状态。正如作者所言，“衰老是一个连续的过程，与假定的衰落和死亡的最后阶段相比，不能将其简化为退休后生活方式的某个特定阶段的本质”（第3页）。福利国家的综合影响意味着，英国退休后很长一段时间以来，活跃和健康的人口占相当大的比例，这对“变老”的经历产生了重大影响。作者能够探索的正是这种衰老的活泼经历，不仅为人们转变观念提供了重要的见解，而且对现代英国的生活也产生了深刻而深刻的印象，这些想法改变了人们对“老”的含义。

与福利国家一起变老利用了八名男女的反思性写作，他们出生于1921年至1943年之间。作者将世代差异作为分离的中心点加以强调，并且在整个分析中起着重要作用。在探讨二战期间出生的人与第二次世界大战期间出生的人的态度和经验时，该书能够呈现出向“第二次世界大战”期间的转变的“多层次描述”（第4页）。 1960年代后的新生活方式。这本书展示了参与者写作的延伸段落，十章中的八章主要针对一位参与者。这样，这本书是现代英国社会历史的一个受欢迎的补充，这些历史提供了《大众观察》的更短摘录，几乎没有空间让他们自己结识。

想要深入分析福利国家帮助英国公民衰老的多种方式的读者将不得不寻找其他地方。作为读者，我们有足够的空间来反思参与者的生活，并且本书的主体，除了一些简短的传记细节之外，几乎没有作者的分析方式。可以在开头和结尾各章中找到该分析，将八种不同叙述中出现的关键主题归纳在一起。但是，这种观察不应被视为批评。正是这本书的非常个性化的方法使它读起来如此有力。这本书的最大优点是使用了扩展摘录。我们有机会探索一个人的年龄观念如何随着年龄的增长而改变，提供流动性强且经常相互矛盾的叙述。我们于1992年首次相识，享年70岁，退休已有十年之久，他一直对他的年龄和生活方式进行反思，直到2010年，即他89岁生日的一个月。生活写作的这种线性使用提供了对观点建构和重构的独特见解。

该书的目的是证明需要更流畅的方法来处理老龄化概念。但是，在某些地方，本书摘录可为读者提供更详细的指导，从而使您受益。该书的简介将读者定位在有关衰老和大规模观测的现有工作中，而第一章和第六章介绍了战时和战时时代的产生，提供了书目详细信息并概述了诸如爱情和陪伴之类的关键主题。虽然使用扩展摘录正确地将参与者的声音而不是作者的声音置于研究的中心，但我发现我经常回到介绍性章节来提醒阅读个人证言时的关键主题。这是本来令人振奋和引人入胜的书中唯一的负面因素。

读《带福利国家的老龄化》是一种深刻的个人经历。我们跟踪参与者的经历，包括家人和亲人的死亡，婚姻破裂和关怀经历。作者成功地介绍了英国的衰老历史，其细节和情感丰富，同时清楚地植根于上个世纪的主要社会和文化里程碑。这本书对现代英国的衰老经历进行了重要的重新评估，并说明了福利国家的文化和社会历史的重要性。