Travis Elborough – författare

Traverse the globe and explore the extraordinary. This is a unique, enigmatic collection of 45 meticulously crafted maps for wandering off the beaten track.Embark on an armchair expedition across nations and marvel at astounding spots only ever stumbled upon by chance. The profound histories and distinctive quirks of these happenstances are described in detail alongside evocative black and white photographs.The unexpected places include:   Just Enough Room Island, an aptly named islet that defies spatial conventions The Purple Rock of Madeira, where shipwrecked lovers etched their love story into the annals of history The Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered one day by a wayward goat on a meandering path, guiding its keeper to unravel the mysteries of the past Vaseline, where the product that has become a household staple was accidentally discovered Discover destinations both infamous and unknown, where haphazard means have conspired to shape our world's history. This is a tour through the quirks of fate and the marvels of chance.In every tale and map, the world's most astounding, improbable, and, above all, unexpected locations, providing a captivating glimpse into the tapestry of human history and the unpredictability of our planet's hidden wonders. This literary voyage is an ode to the curious and the adventurous, celebrating the unexpected marvels that define our world. This is a literary and visual adventure that will immerse you in far-off lands and obscure discoveries, offering a unique perspective on the world's hidden treasures.

Imagine what the world once looked like as you discover places that have disappeared from modern atlases in this stunningly illustrated and award-winning book.Have you ever wondered about cities that lie forgotten under the dust of newly settled land? Rivers and seas whose changing shape has shifted the landscape around them? Or, even, places that have seemingly vanished, without a trace? Following the international bestselling success of Atlas of Improbable Places and Atlas of the Unexpected, Travis Elborough takes you on a voyage to all corners of the world in search of the lost, disappearing and vanished. Discover ancient seats of power and long-forgotten civilizations through the Mayan city of Palenque; delve into the mystery of a disappeared Japanese islet; and uncover the incredible hidden sites like the submerged Old Adaminaby, once abandoned but slowly remerging.With beautiful maps and stunning colour photography, Atlas of Vanishing Places shows these places as they once were as well as how they look today: a fascinating guide to lost lands and the fragility of our relationship with the world around us.WINNER Illustrated Book of the Year - Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards 2020Also in the Unexpected Atlas series: Atlas of Improbable Places, Atlas of Untamed Places, Atlas of the Unexpected.

'A fascinating, informative, revelatory book' William Boyd, GuardianParks are such a familiar part of everyday life, you might be forgiven for thinking they have always been there. In fact, public parks are an invention. From their medieval inception as private hunting grounds through to their modern incarnation as public spaces of rest and relaxation, parks have been fought over by land-grabbing monarchs, reforming Victorian industrialists, hippies, punks, and somewhere along the way, the common folk trying to savour their single day of rest.In A Walk in the Park, Travis Elborough excavates the history of parks in all their colour and complexity. Loving, funny and impassioned, this is a timely celebration of a small wonder that – in an age of swingeing cuts – we should not take for granted.

In this gloriously original social history, Travis Elborough argues that our national character - our snobbishness and willingness to laugh at ourselves, our attitudes to sex and fair play and our chequered relationship with national pride - has been forged against a backdrop of stormy skies and pebbly beaches. Covering everything from Agatha Christie to the Prince Regent via Billy Butlin and Brighton Rock, this is a book for anyone who has ever wrestled with a deckchair, braved a sopping esplanade or felt the crunch of sand in a sandwich.

'Elegant and multi-focal. Glorious!' Simon Garfield'It will make you look at specs with fresh eyes' New Statesman'Lively, engaging and admirably wide-ranging' The Times'Fascinating' ObserverThe humble pair of glasses might just be one of the world's greatest inventions, allowing millions to see a world that might otherwise appear a blur. And yet how much do many of us really think about these things perched on the ends of our noses?Through the Looking Glasses traces the fascinating story of spectacles: from their inception as primitive visual aids for monkish scribes right through to today's designer eyewear and the augmented reality of Google Glass. There are encounters with ingenious medieval Italian glassmakers, myopic Renaissance rulers and spectacle-makers, as well as the silent movie star Harold Lloyd, the rock'n'roller Buddy Holly and the full-screen figure of Marilyn Monroe. This is a book about vision and the need for humanity to see clearly, and where the impulse to improve our eyesight has led us.

Explore the places that time forgot. Abandoned, mysterious, sleeping monuments around the world have been relegated to the margins of history, pushed off the map and out of sight.From ancient ruins and crumbling castles to more recent relics – an art deco New York subway station, a Soviet ghost town in the Arctic Circle, a flooded Thai mall teeming with aquatic life – Travis Elborough takes you on a journey into these strange, overlooked and disappearing worlds and immortalises their fates.Original maps and stunning colour photography accompany Travis Elborough’s moving historic and geographic accounts of each site. The featured locations are a stark reminder of what was, and the accounts in this investigative book help to bring their stories back to life, telling us what happened, when and why, and to whom.The book features 40 sites, including: Santa Claus, Arizona, USA: A festive tourist resort turned ghost town deep in the desert where once you could meet Santa Claus any day of the year;Crystal Palace Subway, London, UK: One of the city’s best-kept secrets is an underground, cathedral-like relic from where many Victorian commuters bustled through;Montserrat, West Indies: The small Caribbean island with a population of 5,000 that was evacuated when its volcano erupted in 1995. The volcano is still active and nearly half the island remains a designated exclusion zone;Balaklava Submarine Base, Crimea: The former top-secret Soviet submarine base that was kept off all official maps and known as Object 825 GTS;Volterra Psychiatric Hospital, Tuscany, Italy: Once dubbed ‘the place of no return’, this long-closed lunatic asylum once housed 6,000 patients who were never allowed to leave.Also in the Unexpected Atlas series: Atlas of Improbable Places, Atlas of Untamed Places, Atlas of the Unexpected and Atlas of Vanishing Places (WINNER Illustrated Book of the Year - Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards 2020).

'A delightful compendium of the strangest places on the planet.’ DAILY TELEGRAPH Travel in search of the obscure and bizarre, the beautiful and arcane in a unique atlas showing the modern world from surprising new vantage points. Discover the macabre Island of Dolls. Wonder at San Juan Parangaricutiro’s church tower, the sole survivor in a town sunk by lava. Explore Beijing and Berlin’s labyrinths, home to both refugees and espionage. Marvel at nature’s own extraordinary masterpieces: the magical underground river shaped like a dragon’s mouth in the Philippines and Palmerston, a floating world. The truths and myths behind these hidden lairs, forgotten cities and improbable wonders are as varied and intriguing as the destinations themselves. Acclaimed author and social commentator Travis Elborough is a marvellous travel guide to the world’s most unusual corners on this fascinating voyage through geography, taking travel writing to new heights. ‘This engrossing book traverses the heights and depths, the beauty and terror, of our world.’ THE OBSERVER ‘Understatedly expressive’ NEW YORK TIMES ‘Deeply researched – and really worth your time’GQ

Follow in the footsteps of some of the world’s most famous painters in this fascinating work from the Journeys of Note series.Some truly remarkable works of art have been inspired by artists spending time away from their typical surroundings.From epic road trips and arduous treks into remote territories to cultural tours and sojourns in the finest hotels, this book explores 30 influential journeys taken by artistic greats and reveals the repercussions of those travels on the painters’ personal lives and the broader cultural landscape.Award-winning author Travis Elborough brings each of these trips to life with fascinating insights into the stories behind the creation of some of the world’s most famous paintings, including Henri Matisse’s vivid paintings of Morocco, Katsushika Hokusai’s woodblock prints of Mount Fuji in Japan, Marianne North’s paintings of India and David Hockney’s California pool paintings.

From epic road trips and voyages into the most remote lands to culture-soaked, tranquil stays in the world’s finest hotels, Artists' Journeys that Shaped Our World promises you an unforgettable journey. Join award-winning author Travis Elborough as he explores 30 paths to inspiration taken by some of the greatest artists in history. Some of the most awe-inspiring works of art have been created by artists who stepped beyond their usual surroundings and ventured into the world in search of beauty, meaning, and creative power. This invigorating account reveals how those journeys impacted the artists’ personal lives and shaped the broader cultural landscape. From the obscure to the iconic, Elborough shares fascinating insights into the stories behind the creation of some of the world’s most celebrated works, including Katsushika Hokusai’s woodblock prints of Mount Fuji in Japan, Marianne North’s paintings of India, and David Hockney’s California pool scenes. From Georgia O’Keeffe and Frida Kahlo to Henri Matisse and Marcel Duchamp, this captivating book invites readers to follow in the footsteps of artists who made it their mission to live and work beyond the boundaries of their walls. Be part of their travels and explore the beauty and wonder that the world has to offer with Artists’ Journeys that Shaped Our World.

Follow in the footsteps of some of the world’s most famous painters in this fascinating work from the Journeys of Note series.Some truly remarkable works of art have been inspired by artists spending time away from their typical surroundings.From epic road trips and arduous treks into remote territories to cultural tours and sojourns in the finest hotels, this book explores 30 influential journeys taken by artistic greats and reveals the repercussions of those travels on the painters’ personal lives and the broader cultural landscape.Award-winning author Travis Elborough brings each of these trips to life with fascinating insights into the stories behind the creation of some of the world’s most famous paintings, including Henri Matisse’s vivid paintings of Morocco, Katsushika Hokusai’s woodblock prints of Mount Fuji in Japan, Marianne North’s paintings of India and David Hockney’s California pool paintings.

Follow in the footsteps of some of the world’s most famous authors on the journeys which inspired their greatest works in this beautiful illustrated atlas.  Some truly remarkable works of literature have been inspired by writers spending time away from their typical surroundings. From epic road trips and arduous treks into remote territories to cultural tours and sojourns in the finest hotels, this book explores 35 influential journeys taken by literary greats and reveals the repercussions of those travels on the authors’ personal lives and the broader literary landscape.  Award-winning author Travis Elborough brings each of these trips to life with fascinating insights into the stories behind the creation of some of the world’s most famous literary creations, including Dracula, Moby Dick, Murder on the Orient Express, Madame Bovary, The Talented Mr Ripley and Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.From Herman Melville’s first whaling voyage in 1841, from New York to Liverpool, to Jack Kerouac’s on-the-road Odyssey, which is now an iconic drive, discover how these journeys imprinted themselves on some of the greatest literary minds of all time.Complete with navigational notes, colour photographs and commissioned maps, the fresh insights within tell readers something new about the places, work and personalities of some of the world’s greatest minds.

Follow in the footsteps of some of the world’s most famous authors on the journeys which inspired their greatest works in this beautiful illustrated atlas. Some truly remarkable works of literature have been inspired by writers spending time away from their typical surroundings. From epic road trips and arduous treks into remote territories to cultural tours and sojourns in the finest hotels, this book explores 35 influential journeys taken by literary greats and reveals the repercussions of those travels on the authors’ personal lives and the broader literary landscape. Award-winning author Travis Elborough brings each of these trips to life with fascinating insights into the stories behind the creation of some of the world’s most famous literary creations, including Dracula, Moby Dick, Murder on the Orient Express, Madame Bovary, The Talented Mr Ripley and Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.From Herman Melville’s first whaling voyage in 1841, from New York to Liverpool, to Jack Kerouac’s on-the-road Odyssey, which is now an iconic drive, discover how these journeys imprinted themselves on some of the greatest literary minds of all time.Complete with navigational notes, colour photographs and commissioned maps, the fresh insights within tell readers something new about the places, work and personalities of some of the world’s greatest minds.

Follow in the footsteps of some of the world’s most famous authors on the journeys which inspired their greatest works in this beautiful illustrated atlas.  Some truly remarkable works of literature have been inspired by writers spending time away from their typical surroundings. From epic road trips and arduous treks into remote territories to cultural tours and sojourns in the finest hotels, this book explores 35 influential journeys taken by literary greats and reveals the repercussions of those travels on the authors’ personal lives and the broader literary landscape.  Award-winning author Travis Elborough brings each of these trips to life with fascinating insights into the stories behind the creation of some of the world’s most famous literary creations, including Dracula, Moby Dick, Murder on the Orient Express, Madame Bovary, The Talented Mr Ripley and Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.From Herman Melville’s first whaling voyage in 1841, from New York to Liverpool, to Jack Kerouac’s on-the-road Odyssey, which is now an iconic drive, discover how these journeys imprinted themselves on some of the greatest literary minds of all time.Complete with navigational notes, colour photographs and commissioned maps, the fresh insights within tell readers something new about the places, work and personalities of some of the world’s greatest minds.

Traverse the globe and explore the extraordinary. This is a unique, enigmatic collection of 45 meticulously crafted maps for wandering off the beaten track.Embark on an armchair expedition across nations and marvel at astounding spots only ever stumbled upon by chance. The profound histories and distinctive quirks of these happenstances are described in detail alongside evocative black and white photographs.The unexpected places include:   Just Enough Room Island, an aptly named islet that defies spatial conventions The Purple Rock of Madeira, where shipwrecked lovers etched their love story into the annals of history The Dead Sea Scrolls, discovered one day by a wayward goat on a meandering path, guiding its keeper to unravel the mysteries of the past Vaseline, where the product that has become a household staple was accidentally discovered Discover destinations both infamous and unknown, where haphazard means have conspired to shape our world's history. This is a tour through the quirks of fate and the marvels of chance.In every tale and map, the world's most astounding, improbable, and, above all, unexpected locations, providing a captivating glimpse into the tapestry of human history and the unpredictability of our planet's hidden wonders. This literary voyage is an ode to the curious and the adventurous, celebrating the unexpected marvels that define our world. This is a literary and visual adventure that will immerse you in far-off lands and obscure discoveries, offering a unique perspective on the world's hidden treasures.

Explore the places that time forgot. These abandoned, mysterious, sleeping monuments around the world have been relegated to the margins of history.From ancient ruins and crumbling castles to more recent relics – an art deco New York subway station, a Soviet ghost town in the Arctic Circle, a flooded Thai mall teeming with aquatic life – Travis Elborough takes you on a journey into these strange, overlooked and disappearing worlds and immortalises them in this book of original maps, accompanied by moving historic and geographic accounts of each site.The featured locations are a stark reminder of what was, and the accounts in this investigative book help to bring their stories back to life, telling us what happened, when and why, and to whom. The book features 40 sites, including: Santa Claus, Arizona, USA: A festive tourist resort-turned-ghost town deep in the desert where you could once meet Santa Claus any day of the year; Crystal Palace Subway, London, UK: One of the city’s best-kept secrets is an underground, cathedral-like relic that many Victorian commuters bustled through; Montserrat, West Indies: The small Caribbean island with a population of 5,000 that was evacuated when its volcano erupted in 1995. The volcano is still active and nearly half the island remains a designated exclusion zone; Balaklava Submarine Base, Crimea: The former top-secret Soviet submarine base that was kept off all official maps and known as Object 825 GTS; Volterra Psychiatric Hospital, Tuscany, Italy: Once dubbed ‘the place of no return’, this long-closed lunatic asylum once housed 6,000 patients who were never allowed to leave. From eerie ghost towns to epic undersea monuments, armchair travellers and adventure seekers will be captivated by this curious atlas of strange and surreal abandoned sites across the world. It follows on from the success of the award-winning title Atlas of Vanishing Places, and forms part of an atlas series that offers lesser-known histories of hidden, fascinating locations worldwide.Also in the Unexpected Atlas series: Atlas of Improbable Places, Atlas of Untamed Places, Atlas of the Unexpected and Atlas of Vanishing Places (WINNER Illustrated Book of the Year - Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards 2020).

Explore the places that time forgot. These abandoned, mysterious, sleeping monuments around the world have been relegated to the margins of history.From ancient ruins and crumbling castles to more recent relics – an art deco New York subway station, a Soviet ghost town in the Arctic Circle, a flooded Thai mall teeming with aquatic life – Travis Elborough takes you on a journey into these strange, overlooked and disappearing worlds and immortalises them in this book of original maps, accompanied by moving historic and geographic accounts of each site.The featured locations are a stark reminder of what was, and the accounts in this investigative book help to bring their stories back to life, telling us what happened, when and why, and to whom. The book features 40 sites, including: Santa Claus, Arizona, USA: A festive tourist resort-turned-ghost town deep in the desert where you could once meet Santa Claus any day of the year; Crystal Palace Subway, London, UK: One of the city’s best-kept secrets is an underground, cathedral-like relic that many Victorian commuters bustled through; Montserrat, West Indies: The small Caribbean island with a population of 5,000 that was evacuated when its volcano erupted in 1995. The volcano is still active and nearly half the island remains a designated exclusion zone; Balaklava Submarine Base, Crimea: The former top-secret Soviet submarine base that was kept off all official maps and known as Object 825 GTS; Volterra Psychiatric Hospital, Tuscany, Italy: Once dubbed ‘the place of no return’, this long-closed lunatic asylum once housed 6,000 patients who were never allowed to leave. From eerie ghost towns to epic undersea monuments, armchair travellers and adventure seekers will be captivated by this curious atlas of strange and surreal abandoned sites across the world. It follows on from the success of the award-winning title Atlas of Vanishing Places, and forms part of an atlas series that offers lesser-known histories of hidden, fascinating locations worldwide.Also in the Unexpected Atlas series: Atlas of Improbable Places, Atlas of Untamed Places, Atlas of the Unexpected and Atlas of Vanishing Places (WINNER Illustrated Book of the Year - Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards 2020).

Vinyl is back! For some, it never really went away. But whether you are a life-long aficionado, a penitent former CD head or recent convert to the format, The Philosophy of Vinyl is a book aimed at enhancing your appreciation of the discs in your collection.This book celebrates all the rituals of records: the sleeves, the sides played, all the rites of needles, fluff and cleaning cloths, and the smells of records and their covers.Its pages include enough nuggets of technical information to satisfy hi-fi enthusiasts and plenty of quirky trivia on classic records, labels, recording studios, pressing plants and cover artwork to delight the novice record collector, and anyone filled with the nostalgia of a youth spent carefully turning the disc to play the other side.It is a book that sends its readers back to their records with renewed love and affection, and hopefully inspires them to seek out new additions and find fresh ways to revel in their 45s, EPs, 12-inches and LPs as long as their turntables keep spinning, and the crackle of needle on vinyl ignites their senses.

'Elegant and multi-focal. Glorious!' Simon GarfieldThe humble pair of glasses might just be one the world's greatest inventions, allowing millions to see a world that might otherwise appear a blur. And yet how much do many of us even really think about these things perched on the ends of our noses? In this eye-opening history Travis Elborough traces the fascinating true story of spectacles: from their inception as primitive visual aids to monkish scribes right through to today's designer eyewear and the augmented reality of Google Glass. And taking in along the way such delights as lorgnettes, monocles, pince-nez, tortoise-shell 'Windsors' and Ray Ban aviator shades. Peering into early theories about how the eye worked, he considers the theological and philosophical arguments about the limits of perception by Greek thinkers, Roman statesmen and Arab scholars. There are encounters with ingenious medieval Italian glassmakers, myopic Renaissance rulers and spectacle-makers and opticians, brilliant, mad, bad and dangerous to know, in the Londons of Samuel Pepys, Dr Johnson and Sherlock Holmes.We learn how eyeglasses were the making of the silent movie star Harold Lloyd and the rock n roller Buddy Holly and helped liberate an exasperated John Lennon from Beatlemania. Get hip to horn-rims with Dizzy Gillespie and Michael Caine And see girls in glasses through the lenses of the crime fiction by Dorothy L Sayers and Raymond Chandler and the full-screen figure of Marilyn Monroe. Through the Looking Glasses is about vision and the need for humanity to see clearly, and where the impulse to improve our eyesight has led us. The society of the spectacle may finally be upon us . . . but how much of it do we really see?

In 1968 the world’s largest antique went to America. But how do you transport a 130-year-old bridge 3,000 miles?And why did Robert P. McCulloch, a multimillionaire oil baron and chainsaw-manufacturing king, buy it?Why did he ship it to a waterless patch of the Arizonan desert?Did he even get the right bridge? To answer these questions, it’s necessary to meet a peculiar cast.Fleet Street shysters · Revolutionary Radicals · Frock-coated industrialists · Disneyland designers · Thames dockers · Guinness Book of Records officials · The odd Lord Mayor · Bridge-building priests · Gun-toting U.S. sheriffs · An Apache Indian or two And a fraudster whose greatest trick was to convince the world he ever existedRoll up, then, for the story of one of the strangest events in Anglo-American relations. Curious, clever and sharp, this is history to delight in.

'A fascinating, informative, revelatory book' William Boyd, GuardianParks are such a familiar part of everyday life, you might be forgiven for thinking they have always been there. In fact, public parks are an invention. From their medieval inception as private hunting grounds through to their modern incarnation as public spaces of rest and relaxation, parks have been fought over by land-grabbing monarchs, reforming Victorian industrialists, hippies, punks, and somewhere along the way, the common folk trying to savour their single day of rest.In A Walk in the Park, Travis Elborough excavates the history of parks in all their colour and complexity. Loving, funny and impassioned, this is a timely celebration of a small wonder that – in an age of swingeing cuts – we should not take for granted.

‘We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed’ Martin Luther KingIn an era where the liberties we often take for granted are under threat, Letters To Change the World is a collection of inspiring letters offering reminders from history that standing up for and voicing our personal and political beliefs is not merely a crucial right but a duty if we want to change the world.Edited by Travis Elborough, the collection includes George Orwell's warning on totalitarianism, Martin Luther King's 'Letter from a Birmingham Jail', Albert Camus on the reasons to fight a war, Bertrand Russell on peace, Emmeline Pankhurst rallying her suffragettes, Nelson Mandela's letter to his children from prison and Time's Up on the abuse of power.

'We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed' Martin Luther King, Jr.In an era where our liberties are often under threat, Letters to Change the World sends reminders from history that standing up for - and voicing - our personal and political beliefs is not merely a human right but our duty, if we want to make change happen.Featuring Emmeline Pankhurst rallying her suffragettes, George Orwell's warning against totalitarianism, Nelson Mandela's consoling his children from prison, Time's Up condemning abuses of power, and much more, this collection will inspire you to stand up and speak up - now, for what really matters.'Remarkable, timely ... At a time of political uncertainty, the collection demonstrates the importance of speaking truth to power' Guardian

'A delightful compendium of the strangest places on the planet.’ DAILY TELEGRAPH Travel in search of the obscure and bizarre, the beautiful and arcane in a unique atlas showing the modern world from surprising new vantage points. Discover the macabre Island of Dolls. Wonder at San Juan Parangaricutiro’s church tower, the sole survivor in a town sunk by lava. Explore Beijing and Berlin’s labyrinths, home to both refugees and espionage. Marvel at nature’s own extraordinary masterpieces: the magical underground river shaped like a dragon’s mouth in the Philippines and Palmerston, a floating world. The truths and myths behind these hidden lairs, forgotten cities and improbable wonders are as varied and intriguing as the destinations themselves. Acclaimed author and social commentator Travis Elborough is a marvellous travel guide to the world’s most unusual corners on this fascinating voyage through geography, taking travel writing to new heights. ‘This engrossing book traverses the heights and depths, the beauty and terror, of our world.’ THE OBSERVER ‘Understatedly expressive’ NEW YORK TIMES ‘Deeply researched – and really worth your time’GQ

2020 WINNER OF THE EDWARD STANFORD TRAVEL ILLUSTRATED BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD Discover unusual and secret places that have disappeared from modern atlases, and revel in imagining what the world once looked like. Award-winning author Travis Elborough takes you on a fascinating voyage to all corners of the world in search of the lost, disappearing and vanished. Unearth ancient seats of power and long-forgotten civilizations through the Mayan city of Palenque; delve into the mystery of a disappeared Japanese islet; and uncover incredible hidden sites like the submerged Old Adaminaby, once abandoned but slowly remerging. With beautiful maps and stunning colour photography, Atlas of Vanishing Places shows these sites as they once were, together with how they look today – it’s a travel guide, a modern atlas and a passage through geography like no other: travel writing has rarely been so inspiring. Also in the Unexpected Atlas series: Atlas of Improbable Places, Atlas of Untamed Places, Atlas of the Unexpected.

What better way to understand Britain during the twentieth century than through the eyes of those who experienced it at first hand? Travis Elborough's compilation offers brilliantly candid and intimate insights not only into the headline-grabbing events but also the domestic and personal moments of those who lived through it.The book draws on over one hundred diarists. They include the great and the good – from Beatrice Webb to Tony Benn, from A. C. Benson to Alan Bennett, from Virginia Ironside to Hanif Kureishi – as well as many less-well-known individuals such as Gladys Langford and Kathleen Tipper, whose writings for the Mass Observation Project offer brilliant glimpses into what the man or woman on the street really made of the stuff of history at the time.From the Easter Rising to the arrival of email, from the Boer War to New Labour, here are responses to the death of Princess Diana, the resignation of Margaret Thatcher, the Moon landing, the Beatles and much more.Guardian Best Books of 2017, selected by David KynastonPraise for Travis Elborough:‘One of Britain's finest pop culture historians.’Guardian‘Elborough is an English nostalgist in the mode of John Betjeman … as a cultural commentator he is a terrific companion.’Sunday Times‘Travis Elborough is becoming a latter-day Alan Bennett.’Spectator‘Elborough has the passion of a true enthusiast.’Mail on Sunday‘Elborough is a charming, funny and frequently fascinating guide.’Telegraph