Welcome to the Website of Alan Burnett: writer, blogger, collector of old photographs, and devotee of all things pointless and inconsequential.
78 RPM
I wake up today to discover that I have become 78. How nice that would be if it meant I could spin around faster than ever, or that the revolutionary fervour of my youth was stronger and more passionate than ever. Alas, it merely means that I’ve lost what clarity I ever had, I often repeat myself endlessly and have become increasingly out of date.
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Stone Slates And Chimney Pots
This was the previous generation: the generation of stone slates and chimney pots, when harsh grey smoke drifted up to merge with a wet grey sky. It was bad for us -…
Looking Down
The photograph is one of dozens I’ve taken of Halifax from the top of Beacon Hill over the years. This particular one dates from the early 1970s. Sometimes, however, I’d been blessed…
Rainy Days
You expect rain in Manchester. When I was there last week it rained from the moment I got off the train until the moment I stepped back on the train again, four…
Liverpool!
This is a wonderful photograph – so much more eloquent than the usual smiling-face mugshot. That’s my mother pointing, my brother Roger digging in the sand, and me looking attentively…
Fishy Shapes
Like a cross between Halloween-costumed children and monsters auditioning for Doctor Who, these smokestacks dominated the skyline at Grimsby Fish Docks 40 or 50 years ago. I visited the docks whenever…
Never, Never, So
.. And speaking of fakes! No doubt people will recall the time Vincent van Gogh spent in Halifax in the early 1870s, and his fondness of the view from Greetland…
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