Did you think that you would be reading about Eric Clapton when turning to this book review? Well, you will if you read on or if you read the book itself. The story of Clapton's upbringing is one of many the authors have woven into the complex story of the attitudes, provisions and circumstances of unmarried mothers and the role of the National Council for Unmarried Mothers in supporting them and their cause over the past century. Unmarried mothers have historically been both the most vulnerable and the most threatening group of lone mothers: vulnerable regarding their need for support for a long time being reliant on the moral judgement of the local poor relief boards and the work of charities such as the National Council, and threatening as unmarried mothers have been seen as destabilising the social order of children being born within wedlock. Therefore, they make an interesting case study.

The political history of lone motherhood during the twentieth century has been explored previously, for example in Lewis (Reference Lewis1995) and, then, more broadly, in Kiernan et al. (Reference Kiernan, Land and Lewis1998). Thus, a retrospective of policy, attitudinal and demographic changes of lone motherhood over the twentieth century is not entirely new. Yet, Thane and Evans combined analysis of the history of a particular group, in this case unmarried lone parents, with that of a pressure group representing their interests provides new insights and thus complements and adds to the existing scholarship on lone parenthood in a number of ways.

Firstly, the history and archives of the National Council, set up in 1918, provide additional dimensions to the story of lone motherhood through the twentieth century. This is particularly the case where the authors are placing the development of the charity in the broader context of the co-existence and co-operation of the growing welfare state and the voluntary sector more generally. Inevitably, the story of the National Council is also the story of remarkable individuals, who have chaired or supported the charity, its aims and clientele with great success, such as Letitita Fisher, the first chairwoman, and Sue Slipman, who headed the organisation during the 1980s and 1990s, and Neville Chamberlain, whose support was instrumental in linking payments to affiliation orders, to name but three.

Secondly, throughout the examination of the changes in the official treatment and welfare provisions for unmarried mothers and the role of the National Council, the book includes snippets from the lives of unmarried mothers over the century and they make compelling reading. Not wanting to admit to an obsession with Eric Clapton but his story of having been raised by his grandparents as their own child, becoming wise to the fact that they are not his parents and then confronting his biological mother when she comes to visit him makes harrowing reading. However, his experience is relatively common for children of unmarried mothers during the first sixty years of the twentieth century when moral and other restrictions made raising children by oneself a possibility for a few mothers only.

As the story weaves its way through the key events of the twentieth century, each chapter includes time-specific information and due to the very thorough research manages to draw out new angles. I particularly liked the chapter on the treatment of unmarried mothers linked to soldiers during World War I, the chapter on ‘counteracting Bowlby’, as well as the level of detail on the portrayal of unmarried mothers by the Conservative government and the media in the 1980s and early 1990s and the campaigning of the National Council to counteract these stereotypes.

Overall then this ambitious book makes for an interesting read and provides additional information about the lives, concerns, treatment and representation of unmarried mothers during the previous century. It is always easy to mention additional aspects one would have found relevant, for example for readers who are not familiar with the history of other groups of lone parents, comparisons with the treatment of widowed lone mothers and later also divorced lone mothers would have thrown the particular circumstances of unmarried mothers into starker relief. Also, while the analysis of the policies for lone mothers goes right up to the present, the last chapter does not include much information about the work of what is now Gingerbread nor about the public perception of unmarried motherhood today. Yet, these are small quibbles.

For anyone interested in the history of the phenomenon of unmarried motherhood, the changes to the situation of the families concerned, the expansion of welfare provision and the role of the National Council in providing and lobbying for their welfare, this is an invaluable book. However, more broadly, the book deserves a wider audience as the idea of unravelling the history of particular group alongside a longstanding voluntary organisation such as the National Council could usefully be applied to other groups.