There are many knowledge generators but few knowledge synthesisers. Pulling together research findings from different disciplines to make a coherent and comprehensive story is a difficult task. Most researchers prefer to burrow deeper into the detail of their subject and escape the hazards of painting big pictures. This book, a report on the New Dynamics of Ageing (NDA) research programme, is an example of such a big picture, and in the main it works well. It describes a programme designed to promote cross-disciplinary studies of ageing, with the overriding policy aim of promoting ‘active’ ageing and challenging assumptions about inevitable decline in old age. The report reflects and contributes to current thinking in gerontology, with especial emphasis on user engagement, knowledge transfer, lifecourse approaches, inequalities and diversity.

Multi-disciplinarity is easy to talk about and hard to do. This collection of essays shows how the NDA programme fostered collaboration across disciplines by creating preparatory networks of researchers fuelled by pump-priming funds to explore topics – mental health, nutrition, social engagement, and so on – prior to launching larger studies. The array of chapters shows how productive this approach was, and how much learning occurred in discussions about the secrets of success.

The result is a rich compendium of ‘state of the art’ thinking in gerontology that readers can fruitfully dip into, or follow through from start to finish (the more demanding option). Chapter 1 on the biology of ageing is (as the editor says) essential reading for the non-biologist, but biologists live in small worlds too and many will benefit from reading this chapter. Chapter 2 explores the narratives about ageing that shape social attitudes to older people, whilst Chapter 3 maps out quality of later life, wellbeing and barriers to ‘active’ (meaning socially engaged as much as physically active) ageing. Since what many practitioners working with older people know about nutrition can fit easily on to the back of a postage stamp, Chapter 4 is truly enlightening, and can help us untangle the complexities of under- and over-nutrition in an ageing society. Participation and social connectivity (Chapter 6) are well-rehearsed topics with strong moral and political flavours, whereas design (Chapter 7) is humbly preoccupied with (among other things) step and stair negotiation, clothing types and materials, and the practicalities of Kitchen Living.

The final chapter discusses the ‘ageing crisis’ and the current emphasis on ‘healthy ageing’, in terms of the economic need to stop older people's ‘premature’ exit from productive employment. It is critical of the approaches to healthy ageing taken by the European Union and the World Health Organisation, the former because it is concerned only with older people's fitness for the labour market and the latter for being ‘top-down’ in its thinking and practice rather than empowering older people. Instead this chapter proposes seven key policy principles for active ageing: enhancing meaningfulness, adopting a preventative stance, promoting inclusiveness, encouraging intergenerational solidarity, acknowledging older people's rights and obligations, empowerment and the reduction of inequalities in later life. All may be contentious for some, but the only surprise for me was the emphasis on older people's obligations to remain healthy and active, an obligation which may be difficult to enforce.

In a book written by 49 authors, there are bound to be quirks. The writing style is inevitably uneven, but not as uneven as you might expect, thanks I suspect to some firm editing. A side-swipe at criticism of the NDA from the EQUAL programme in the first chapter came as a surprise; academic spats are hugely entertaining for observers, but this diversion might fit better in the final discussion than in the introductory chapter. Also having three pages of bullet points in Chapter 1 (pp. 3–5) suggests a lack of imagination at the publishers. These are small points. The depth and breadth of this book make it into an essential resource.