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The Life Project: The Extraordinary Story of Our Ordinary Lives Hardcover – 25 Feb 2016

by Helen Pearson (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars 52 customer reviews
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Product details

  • Hardcover: 416 pages
  • Publisher: Allen Lane; 1st Edition edition (25 Feb. 2016)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 184614826X
  • ISBN-13: 978-1846148262
  • Product Dimensions: 14.4 x 3.7 x 22.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 23,746 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Review

A spellbinding account of the UK's pioneering cohort studies ... [A] cogent, persuasive book (Robin McKie Observer)

Highly enjoyable ... Reading this book has reminded me of how much we owe to birth cohorts and their participants ... Delightful (Kate Pickett author of The Spirit Level)

Fascinating ... [The Life Project lays] devastatingly bare the collapse of social mobility in the past few decades (Dominic Sandbrook Daily Mail)

Intriguing ... [A] fine, detailed book (Jenni Russell, 'Must Reads' Sunday Times)

[An] eye-opening book ... Part scientific narrative and part postwar social history, along with some fantastically cut-throat academic politics ... A very British success story (Isabel Berwick Financial Times)

Fascinating (Alice Jones Independent)

The Life Project is in many ways a very British story ... Absorbing ... A tribute to Helen Pearson's skill as a writer (Keith Kahn-Harris Independent)

[The Life Project] is hugely engaging, and gives much to chew on (Nick Curtis Evening Standard)

Fascinating ... A cogent exploration of Britain's groundbreaking birth-cohort studies ... The Life Project does a great service in bringing them and the people at their heart to life (Andrew Steptoe Nature)

Pearson has done a real service in explaining how wide-ranging these extraordinary and little-known studies have been (Michael Prodger The Times)

Persuasively argues ... the beauty and sheer vision of these longitudinal cohort studies (Telegraph)

[Pearson] does a superb job of bringing [the cohort studies] to life ... [A] highly readable, deeply informative book (Eric Kaufmann Literary Review)

Incredible (Tech Insider)

About the Author

Helen Pearson is a science journalist and editor for the international science journal Nature. She has been writing for Nature since 2001 and her stories have won accolades including the 2010 Wistar Institute Science Journalism Award and two best feature awards from the Association of British Science Writers. Based in London, she has a PhD in genetics and spent eight of her years with Nature in New York.

Customer Reviews

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Top Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 starsUnusual, serious and interesting
By hfffoman TOP 500 REVIEWER on 19 Nov. 2015
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
I nearly didn't get this because I visited a website called thelifeproject which turned out to be very flimsy. Don't be misled. This book has nothing to do with the website and is a serious scientific and historical study of life in Britain over the last 70 years, recording the social circumstances of the subjects from birth and tracking their lives in a rigorous attempt to understand the influences on their success and failure. It led to better pregnancy and maternity care, and contributed to the establishment of the NHS.

The project, and the book, encompasses five major studies. The first commenced just after the WWII with the recording of every birth in Britain during one week in 1946. They have been following 5,362 of them ever since. another 16,759 children were enlisted over one week in March 1958. The third was in April 1970, adding another 16,749. The fourth was in 1990 and the fifth at the turn of the millennium. In 2015 came the biggest and the most comprehensive one with the aim of recording the lives of 80,000 people born into the modern world. This unfortunately has been cancelled through failure of enough parents to take part.

Although it is a serious book describing both science, sociology and history, it is still an interesting read and offers insight into the way human lives develop in our nation. It is a pity that support appears to be waning and I hope the publication will generate enough interest to reignite it.
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5.0 out of 5 starsFascinating History
By Basement Cat VINE VOICE on 24 Jan. 2016
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
I was very excited when I saw this book, as I am one of the members of the 1958 cohort, and have been 'followed' throughout my life. It began with my mum taking part in a survey when I was born, and has continued with various medical and educational checks whilst I was still at school, and continues now with questions on social activities and family health as the members approach our 60th birthdays. I have always thought it was a fascinating thing to be part of, but didn't really know what was done with all the information that was collected. Until read this book, I didn't know that there was an earlier one in 1946 just after the war, and a later one in 1970.
Having ordered the book, I was a little concerned that this could be a very dull story in the wrong hands. It could well have been, but from the first line of the introduction it was clear that this was going to be a fascinating history of the cohorts. The author has made this such an interesting story, that it held my interest throughout, and I am so grateful for the work that she has done to help me understand what my part in all this was. It is a fascinating story, and as the members of the 1946 cohort will be 70 this March, it's a story that will hopefully now have a wider audience. It is very interesting to find out how the information gathered has contributed to many major social and medical developments over the years. Helen Pearson makes this quite a gripping story.
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5.0 out of 5 starsStudies That Really Matter.
By Dr Barry Clayton TOP 500 REVIEWER on 26 Feb. 2016
Format: Hardcover
A census only reveals certain things about a population. Only cohort studies like these described by Helen Pearson can reveal details about , for example, diabetes, the effects of smoking during pregnancy, or the effect on educational achievement of a summer birth. The author describes some six largely unknown studies carried out based on the collection o facts about every baby born in the UK in a single week in 1946.. it is intriguing and very informative.

The studies were intended originally as a maternity survey. However, they revealed much more of interest. For example, the effects of class on still births, and maternity care. Class was clearly still a key determinant of health. Later studies were carried out of babies born in 1958, 1970, and 1991. A local Bristol study was done from 1982.

Despite shortage of funds, each study produced very valuable discoveries. They would never have been predicted. We learn , for example, of the effect of divorce on children, how wealth lessens these adverse effects,, the benefits of vitamins, why some children develop high blood pressure, and about death prediction. Obesity details are fascinating given the growing concern over this.

This is a remarkable and extremely important book . Those who have tried to rubbish it have either not read it or not understood its findings. These cohort studies are of great importance. They should be properly funded.There is a very surprising and very disappointing lack of will by mothers to participate in new studies. They should do so for in so doing they are enabling government to alleviate or cure many social problems..

Highly recommended.
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5.0 out of 5 starsQuite captivating!
By Mr. Stephen Redman VINE VOICE on 30 Nov. 2015
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
When I was at Grammar School I was exposed to a 1964 TV documentary called ‘7 Up’ that proposed to follow a group of 7 year olds through their lives by interviewing them every 7 years. I have continued to watch them every 7 years all the way up to their 56th year, and look forward to more. This book offers similar insights and reasoning’s based not on a sample of a few dozens but on thousands of people of whom we know their birthdate, weight and everything medical about them including family circumstances.
The book is not itself a rigorous scientific study but more an account of some of these studies going back as far as 1946 and as recent as the millennium. It also tells us of very recent ones that are just starting. The book however is still a rigorous work giving us insight into some of the results of these studies and telling us somethings that we knew intuitively (but intuition is not something you get marks for at university) and other things that surprise and shock.
So, to make myself clear, this is not a volume containing pages and pages of statistics – rather, snippets of insight gained by the author who has perused pages and pages of statistics! The British birth cohorts are remarkable in the amount of detail that has been collected over so many years in such a large group, and do allow conclusions to be drawn. The huge amount of data from but epidemiological studies allows us to know and understand to a greater degree, exactly what circumstances adversely affect a person or advantage them.
The issue that some children are ‘born to fail’ is dealt with in detail and conclusions are drawn. Education, career and life choices are all part of the great equation and this is all balanced with what we know factually about the cohort from birth.Read more ›
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