86 Years On The Prom

This is Fred and Hazel walking along the promenade in August 1932 (there are people out there who will recognise which promenade it is, and - in the great traditions of the internet - will tell me). George V has just opened Lambeth Bridge and Forrest Mars has just produced the first Mars Bar. Aldous … Continue reading 86 Years On The Prom

Picture Post : Arthur Points The Way

This is a new scan of a negative I must have shot some thirty-seven years ago at a Yorkshire Miners' Gala in Rotherham. It was a few months before the start of the miners' strike, and there is Arthur Scargill pointing the way. Somehow it has turned itself into a sepia print - which is … Continue reading Picture Post : Arthur Points The Way

Perspire And Archive

Everybody these days seems to have a motto: some cheery little maxim that manages to condense the ethos of their organisations into a few meaningless words. On my way to the park the other day to walk the dog, I noticed that the local school was dedicated to "Aspire And Achieve" - which is a … Continue reading Perspire And Archive

Tragic Harry

This is a studio portrait, dating from 1913, of the German theatre and movie actor, Harry Walden. He was born in 1875 in Berlin and - following a period in the army - became an actor: first of all in the theatre and then from 1912 onwards in the German film industry. His end was … Continue reading Tragic Harry

A Dream And A Half

This 1908 Birn Brothers postcard - which arrived in my collection from who knows where - asks a perfectly reasonable question, and I have to say that the answer is an unequivocal "no". I did, however, dream the other night that they had turned my old school into a theme pub and - in attempting … Continue reading A Dream And A Half