One of the most striking changes in British society in recent years has been the dramatic increase in income inequality, which is unprecedented by comparison with contemporary international experience or recent domestic history. During the 1980s the number of people living in poverty doubled as the real living standards of those at the bottom of the income distribution stagnated whereas those closer to the top experienced very substantial increases. Public awareness of these developments was heightened by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation's Inquiry into Income and Wealth (see JSP review, 24:3, pp. 443–6). This book now provides more detailed coverage of many of the key research projects that were supported by the Foundation to investigate trends in the distribution of income and wealth.