The purpose of this book is to help develop a nuanced understanding of the way social inequalities and identities are re-produced across generations through leisure, with a specific focus on the interplay of social class and race in the context of global geographical inequalities on one hand and the persistent structures of classed and racial disparities in the contemporary UK on the other. These issues have never been more relevant and pressing than in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has focused public attention on inequalities in our society and prompted reflections on the tools we need to address them. When I conducted the fieldwork for this book in 2017– 18, the COVID-19 pandemic was still a few years away. When it hit the UK and the country went into lockdown in March 2020, the everyday lives of children and their families including those who took part in my project changed in unprecedented ways. For several months on and off between 2020 and 2022, schools closed their doors to most children (except for those whose parents were deemed as essential workers), leisure facilities became out of bounds and for many adults working from home became the norm (Aspinall, 2022). Over this period, hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives to SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19), and many families and communities were left devastated.

At the time of writing, the lockdown and most other public health measures imposed in the wake of the pandemic have been lifted. Schools, leisure centres and most offices have opened again with little or no pandemicrelated restrictions. As we reflect back on the pandemic and look forward to building a post-pandemic future, there are several important lessons that must be learned, and issues of social inequality and childhood are at the heart of these debates. The pandemic far from being a great equaliser, has shone fresh light on the deep and often hidden structures of inequality in our societies: those already disadvantaged pre-pandemic, including people in lower income strata, those of racialised minority backgrounds or those who live in over-crowded housing, were more likely than others to contract the disease in the first place and the various containment measures put in place by the government too disproportionately affected these disadvantaged sections of society (Maestripieri, 2021; Nazroo and Bécares, 2021; Blundell et al, 2022).