This book was conceived walking towards the Rose Gardens at the University of British Columbia, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Pat Chambers was visiting UBC to talk with Anne Martin-Matthews and other colleagues in the School of Social Work and Family Studies there. Pat knew Anne through their shared interests in social gerontology; indeed, some years earlier Anne had been the external examiner on Pat's PhD. Graham Allan was in the middle of a two-year visiting fellowship in the School of Social Work and Family Studies at UBC. He had been seconded from Keele to the Family Studies Group at UBC as a result of Anne Martin-Matthews’ appointment to research director of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Pat had undertaken a small-scale research project on the part that siblings play in later life and, in addition to highly emotive discussions about the achievements and progress of Liverpool Football Club over the previous season, she and Graham spent some time talking how that research might be developed further. That afternoon, walking in the sunshine towards the Rose Gardens at UBC, they came to the conclusion that a book on the organisation of different family relationships in later life would be an interesting project, especially a book that focused less on the pathology of old age and more on the ways these relationships are managed in general.

From these beginnings the current book gradually emerged. Pat and Graham floated the idea with Chris Phillipson and Mo Ray, colleagues at Keele with strong gerontological interests. Both proved highly receptive to the possibility and ‘signed up’ to it. We approached The Policy Press and Judith Phillips, who at the time were in the process of launching their ‘Ageing and the Lifecourse’ series. We are very grateful for the support Emily Watt has given us throughout the process. Without that help the book may well have just remained only an interesting idea.

As it turned out, her support led to innumerable breakfasts among the four of us discussing the organisation of the book, the different chapters we might include and who would take responsibility for what. The typescript was eventually completed, a little more slowly than we had hoped.