Lifetimes is the stories of thirteen working class people living in Partington, an overspill estate in Greater Manchester. It came from a project carried out by Greg Wilkinson, who wished to know more about people he had met and worked with during a rent strike in the 1970s. Curious to know in detail about these people’s life stories, but wishing for them to tell their own stories, not have someone else tell those stories for them, he set up a project which gave them the space to write, talk and share their writing with each other. Wilkinson went on to start up Commonword very much with this principle in mind.

Publication date: 1975