Welcome to the Website of Alan Burnett: writer, blogger, collector of old photographs, and devotee of all things pointless and inconsequential.
What Goes Around ….
My postcard this week takes us back to a time when political cartoons were considered suitable content for picture postcards. It also takes us back to 1903–04, when the idea of free trade was being challenged by politicians advocating protectionism and the use of tariffs as an instrument of foreign policy – most notably Joseph Chamberlain, who urged the rest of Balfour’s Cabinet to join him. You would probably find similar cartoons on social media today – plus ça change!
Keep readingFriendly Fire
For the past 848 weeks, Sepia Saturday has offered themes that allow lovers of old photographs from around the world to share their favourite images. This month’s themes are working their way…
The Mist Of Time
Those who know the town of Brighouse can have fun with this picture – which I must have taken sixty or so years ago – trying to work out where I took…
Standing On The Edge
It seems so long ago – almost another age. The colours and styles may have changed, but then, as now, we stood on the edge and looked out.
Bare Beacon
When I look back at the pictures I took of Halifax in the 1960s and ’70s – the town I have always considered home – several things stand out. The…
Good Taste
Sitting in a restaurant, whiling away the time while the others enjoyed their starters, I began playing with the reflections of the bottles behind the bar. Within a handful of…
St Thomas And The Gasworks (Again)
This is another of those scenes I kept returning to in the 1960s, and I have several versions of it in my negative archive. Perhaps it was fortunate that I…





