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Edited by Anthony M Warnes, Lorna Warren and Michael Nolan.
Jessica Kingsley Publishers
£17.95
ISBN 1 85302 8525

Stemming from the 1998 conference of the British Society of Gerontology, an excellent, coherent and highly accessible book has been produced by the editors, together with Anne Jamieson and Kate Smith.

Gillian Dalley's chapter "Defining difference" needs to be essential reading for all those trying to meet the challenge of the National Service Framework and NHS Plan. More pleasing is the attention given to older people themselves in bringing about change, and the Better Government for Older People agenda is reflected in the sections dealing with citizenship and collective action.

A nugget of a chapter is that by Roger Coleman who argues that service construction and provision needs to move away from deficit, decline, disability and dependency to well-being, activity and independence.

The social care needs of ethnic minority older people are expertly covered, although better integration between individual contributors would have been welcome.

If any reader came to this book and found nothing, that would reflect not the feast contained in its 18 chapters but the consumer's appetite to meet the challenges.

Mervyn Eastman is director, UK Better Government for Older People Network.