In recent years, researchers in gerontology have increasingly attended to an important set of questions about the intersections between people, places and time. One line of this questioning surrounds the extent to which rural communities are, or can be, good places for older people. Another strand seeks clarity about which kinds of people seem to do well in which kinds of places on an urban-rural continuum. This is then extended through a lifecourse perspective, to consider at which times in people's lives, is this ‘ecological fit’ most effective. This edited volume brings together and generates both empirical and theoretical responses to these central questions. The editor, Norah Keating, has brought together a large team of authors (22 contributors to 12 chapters). They explore, critique and generate many insights about the study of rural ageing, using both micro- and macro-level analyses. In geographical terms, most of the contributions refer to Canadia and the United Kingdom, although this still allows extensive variation along the continuum of scale, and the various characteristics of communities recognised as ‘rural’ in different settings.

Considerable attention has been given to the overall integration of this slim and highly readable volume: good indexing, a common reference list, effective internal cross-referencing and well-woven writing. Keating herself is an author or co-author of four chapters. Five other chapters (1, 3, 4, 7 and 8) have cross-national writing teams, each bringing detailed comparative perspectives to bear on important universal aspects, in considering, ‘What makes a good life for older people in rural areas?’ Credit must also go to The Policy Press team and the series editor (Judith Phillips) for including this volume in the Ageing and the Lifecourse series.

Within a critical health ecology perspective, as clearly articulated in the opening chapter by Keating and Phillips, the subsequent chapters develop aspects with both detail and insight: disability features in the chapters by Daly and Grant, and by Fast and de Jong Gierveld, as well as rurality and landscape (Chapman and Peace), and social contexts (Wenger and Keating; Rozanova, Dosman and de Jong Gierveld). The chapter on issues of mobility for older rural adults (by Dobbs and Strain) has high resonance in the current context of escalating fuel costs which are affecting rural and remote communities around the world. These issues are then developed further in the next chapter (Scharf and Bartlam), which explores the applicability of the concept of social exclusion to rural communities.

The cover design complements the text, depicting ‘life's rich tapestry’ in sparkling silk, appropriate imagery for a collection of chapters that are fully textured with light and colour, depth and diversity. The collection itself bridges geographical distance by speaking effectively to scholars and students around the world. Many of the discussions are framed around the stereotypical dichotomies about the age-friendliness of rural, generally small, communities. This dichotomy typically ranges from well integrated socially supportive communities to perceptions of marginally viable and thinly serviced regions and places, vulnerable to socio-economic transformations. While some of the chapters explore in subtle ways how such bipolar contrasts need careful use, it is somewhat surprising that in the penultimate chapter, a new dichotomy is introduced, the contrast between ‘stoic’ and ‘community active’ older people. However, with careful analysis and writing, throughout this and the final chapter, Keating and her co-writers bring us to a new place, in a way which acknowledges the full potential of a critical ecology approach. Linking, first, back to the core elements of critical gerontology introduced in the early chapters, and then linking this to recent contributions from the role of ‘place’ in ageing, the discussion comes through to a useful discussion of ‘best fit’ between environments and people.

No single chapter takes a focal interest in questions of gender differentiation, although several do explore aspects of this in the context of social support, and participation in communities and service use, and also in relation to mobility, particularly linked to patterns of private car use and access. I found one puzzling omission – or perhaps it is an emerging issue, likely to play out very differently in the context of the particular economic contexts of life in rural communities – and that is the intersection of paid-productive work and the lifecourses of men and women. The foundations of rurality in farming, fishing, forestry and primary production as well as the growing single-function economic base of mining and tourism continue to be important bases of rural communities. Such communities, however remote from urban centres, are caught up in global webs with capital, consumption and care flowing through and around them. Clearly in not too many years, the volume will deserve an update and development from this very commendable edited collection.