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Wish You Were Here: England on Sea

The seaside, like football and the railways, is a distinctly English and largely nineteenth century invention. At the Festival of Britain in 1951, a replica of a seafront represented hope and modernity — once the preserve of the sickly elite, the seaside had become one of the great English egalitarian institutions. But when the advent of cheap flights allowed us to go and see how the rest of the world did it — with better weather and sandier beaches — our boarding houses and bandstands slowly rotted away. As the economy forced a reassessment of our holidaying habits, resorts from Morecambe to Bournemouth enjoyed a renaissance. Capitalising on the uniquely English combination of irony and pride, the English Riviera has been reborn.

  • Format
  • hardcover
  • Pages
  • 230
  • Language
  • english
  • ISBN
  • 9780340935101
  • Genres
  • history
  • Release date
  • 2010