Sixty Somethings
After retirement from my post at Brunel University I began to wonder about the lives of other women a bit like me and set out on a project to find out. I don’t think of myself as a Baby Boomer as such, and I do remember the Sixties, but I wanted to make sure my generation leaves a legacy of its thoughts, aspirations and experiences. In Sixty Somethings. The lives of women who remember the Sixties, written with Paul Hoggart and published in 2020 by Quartet Books, a total of 67 women recounted their stories from their youngest days to the present. The humorous Illustrations throughout the book (including those on this page) were drawn by Geo Parkin.
Overview
The ‘Swinging Sixties’ are commonly depicted as hedonistic days. A point in history remembered for the generation of young people who shed the trappings of their parents and grandparents and, fuelled by sex, drugs, rock ‘n roll, set out to put the world to rights. A time when individuality was heralded and convention widely challenged. A time without precedent.
​
But what was it really like and what is this generation up to now? Is sixty really the new forty? Despite pursuing careers, raising families, many becoming grandparents, some caring for ageing parents or enduring all manner of medical problems, is it true that these new hipsters, some literally with new hips, have an undiminished appetite for life?
​
This proposed book looks back over the lives of 67 Sixty Something women who lived through the Sixties to explore these questions. What did they expect from their lives, and were they so different from those of their parents and grandparents and, indeed, even their children? Had their youthful ideals and expectations been matched by reality? Most of these women were university-educated and grew up at a time when left-of-centre political beliefs were taking greater hold. What do they think of more recent developments and the seeming rise of greater right wing tendencies?
​
How too do these so-called ‘Baby Boomers’ react to the negative press they commonly attract, with accusations of rampant self-indulgence, economic irresponsibility and lack of respect for traditional moral values? Living through a period of rapid social change they are now also often heralded as ‘lucky’, ‘privileged’ or even greedy and unscrupulous in holding on to wealth and jobs and disadvantaging younger generations. Is this really fair?
