Welcome to the Website of Alan Burnett: writer, blogger, collector of old photographs, and devotee of all things pointless and inconsequential.
The Picture Postcard
Raise a toast to the humble picture-postcard photographers of a century ago. They seemed to spend their lives producing decorative trinkets – bearing inane greetings – sent from aunt to nephew, friend to friend, and lover to lover. What they actually did was preserve the past better than any porticoed museum. They stopped time and saved the past for the future.
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Locarno Conference
When world leaders arrive at one of the countless international conferences they seem to attend these days, they might pause for a quick Facebook post or an X tweet, but they are…
Dark Satanic Mill
As time goes by and memories fade, there is a tendency to romanticise life in the mills of West Yorkshire (and I’m probably as guilty as the next old fool when it…
All At Sea
Having just booked a trip later this year to visit my various Caribbean relatives, perhaps I should prepare them for my arrival aboard the Queen Mary. After all, it has…
The Build Up
To be honest, I don’t remember taking this photograph, but it remains one of my favourite shots of my hometown. Surrounded by hills, Halifax has always built upward: stone needles…
Another Fine Mesh
Whenever I’m inside a stately home, I can’t help taking a photograph through the windows, looking out. Maybe it’s the mesh they use on windows in places like this that…
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