Butlins In Its Prime Those Golden Years

The fashion show and its spaces are sites of otherness, representing everything from rebellion and excess through to political and social activism. This conceptual and stylistic variety is reflected in the spaces they occupy, whether they are staged in an industrial warehouse, on a city street, or out in the open landscape. Staging Fashion is the first collection of essays about the presentation and staging of fashion in runway shows in the period from the 1960s to the 2010s. It offers a fresh perspective on the many collaborations between artists, architects and interior designers to reinforce their interdisciplinary links. Fashion, architecture and interiors share many elements, including design, history, material culture, aesthetics and trends. The research and ideas underpinning Staging Fashion address how fashion and the spatial fields have collaborated in the creation of the space of the fashion show. The 15 essays are written by fashion, interior, architecture and design scholars focusing on the presentation of fashion within the runway space, from avant-garde practices and collaboration with artists, to the most spectacular and commercial shows of recent years, from Prada to Chanel.

Poverty to Paradise, by Rocky Mason is a story of courage, fear, deprivation and humour. There are times when you will laugh out loud and others when you will weep. It's the definitive autobiography of a man who has been there, done that and still proudly wears the T Shirt. It's an eventful life of tough childhood wartime experiences, a successful amateur boxing career of 69 straight wins in 87 fights only to move from "Gumshield to Greasepaint" and a life in showbiz working for the "Holiday Camp King," Billy Butlin. Drawing on a multitude of sources Rocky offers a compelling account of those six gruelling years 1939 - 45. Food shortages, conscientious objectors, head lice, visits of the nit-nurse, rationing, nightly air raids and his own personal experience of evacuation to an atrocious boys camp. During what was a 30 year association with Butlins, Rocky became a personal friend of almost every showbiz star in the country, many of whom have contributed to this book. .

Is a collection of photographs of a large number of people employed on the famous British Butlin holiday camps. It will be of interest to former Butlin staff and holiday makers.

Provides an enjoyable and nostalgic trip down memory lane for all who know and love Butlin's

In 1936, with the opening of his first holiday camp in Skegness, Billy Butlin laid the foundations for a new era in the history of the British seaside. Today, his legacy still lives on as Butlin's celebrates its 80th year as an iconic British institution. The Nation's Host charts the incredible inside story of Butlin's, from its origins in a British society still reeling from the economic downturn of the 1920s, to its heyday in the mid-twentieth century and the challenges posed by the arrival of overseas package holidays. Lavishly illustrated throughout with timeless images from the Butlin's archives, many of which have never been seen before, this is a unique insight into the history of a company long synonymous with the British seaside holiday.

As much as any country, England bore the brunt of Germany's aggression in World War II, and was ravaged in many ways at the war's end. Celebrated historian David Kynaston has written an utterly original, and compellingly readable, account of the following six years, during which the country rebuilt itself. Kynaston's great genius is to chronicle the country's experience from bottom to top: coursing through through the book, therefore, is an astonishing variety of ordinary, contemporary voices, eloquently and passionately evincing the country's remarkable spirit. Judy Haines, a Chingford housewife, gamely endures the tribulations of rationing; Mary King, a retired schoolteacher in Birmingham, observes how well-fed the Queen looks during a royal visit; Henry St. John, a persnickety civil servant in Bristol, is oblivious to anyone's troubles but his own. Together they present a portrait of an indomitable people and Kynaston skillfully links their stories to bigger events thought the country. Their stories also jostle alongside those of more well-known figures like celebrated journalist-to-be John Arlott (making his first radio broadcast), Glenda Jackson, and Doris Lessing, newly arrived from Africa and struck by the leveling poverty of post-war Britain. Kynaston deftly weaves into his story a sophisticated narrative of how the 1945 Labour government shaped the political, economic, and social landscape for the next three decades.

(Piano/Vocal/Guitar Artist Songbook). A dozen songs from the 2011 breakthrough album by this British singer/songwriter are included in this collection of piano/vocal/guitar arrangements. Songs include the Grammy-nominated megahit "The A Team" and: The City * Drunk * Give Me Love * Grade 8 * Kiss Me * Lego House * Small Bump * This * U.N.I. * Wake Me Up * You Need Me, I Don't Need You.