How this book came to be written

What promoted this work on social care? I began with a qualitative study of people engaged in befriending schemes both as volunteers and ‘befriended’ and with volunteers running older people's social clubs in a London borough (Gray, 2006). Then came a more statistical investigation of what creates ‘social capital’ for older people (Gray, 2009). From 2011, I turned to the lives of people in retirement housing, to the question of how social activities and tenants’ groups could give residents a sense of neighbourliness leading to mutual aid, and a collective voice about their housing conditions and services (Gray, 2015; Gray and Worlledge, 2018). I also became involved in local campaigns to preserve the health service and improve social care in the London borough where I live. Helping to run a pensioners’ group with both social and advocacy/campaigning roles offered many insights into the daily lives of seniors struggling with self-care and the care of relatives, illustrated within this book. I experienced the harsh realities of helping to arrange care for my partner's parents in the United States, which presented a severe challenge to their children living thousands of miles away. This is perhaps not untypical for many London residents whose children or parents live abroad. I witnessed among my personal contacts the trials of seniors facing the COVID-19 pandemic on both sides of the Atlantic, impeded during lockdowns from contact with relatives, and with many normal facilities for support and socialising unavailable.