World's Best Hobby is an unusual title for a memoir, which is exactly what this book is. It's my life in the fascinating hobby of Amateur Radio. Much of my professional life is spent producing documentary and reality programs for television (including more than a few about Ham Radio) where I learned that the purpose of a title is to attract an audience and if it was also true, all the better. The challenge with documentary films is to make them entertaining first and foremost, and informational if possible. I've tried very hard to make this book entertaining, and from feedback I've gotten (from Hams and wannabee Hams who found it posted online as I was writing it) I've succeeded, at least to some extent. I tried to make the book fun because Ham Radio is fun. And Ham Radio has more facets than a cheap diamond, as you'll discover as you dig into World's Best Hobby. Enjoy! PS. Let me know what you think of World's Best Hobby - especially if you like it. 73, Dave Bell, W6AQ

Much previous research on elderly people had focused on their problems, and had created an impression of a group of isolated individuals suffering from almost insurmountable social difficulties. Originally published in 1984, this study of the everyday lives of elderly people, and the sources of help and care available to them in the community at the time, made a special contribution by showing how they can and do make creative adaptations to the challenge of age, and by increasing our understanding of their informal networks of support. The author looks not only at the role and availability of family, but also of friends, neighbours, voluntary associations and statutory services and the composite networks of support which these contacts form, noting differences related to gender, class and household composition. The detailed picture that she presents would be invaluable to those teachers, students and practitioners of social work concerned with the development of more community-based patterns of social work, as recommended by the Barclay Report, and to policy makers who needed to understand how sometimes strained natural support systems may be reinforced and maintained. The book also extends our knowledge of the normal lives of elderly people and will be of general interest to social gerontologists and network theorists in sociology and anthropology.