- Hardcover: 160 pages
- Publisher: Headline Book Publishing; illustrated edition edition (3 Oct 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0755314476
- ISBN-13: 978-0755314478
- Product Dimensions: 20 x 16.2 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 260,595 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Jan Williams and Chris Teasdale are on a mission to record the ordinary and extraordinary details of leisure, landscape and lifestyle in 21st-century Britain. With a wry eye to the humour of their subjects, their book covers locations from across the British Isles in themed sections exploring such aspects of Britishness as gardening (not least the ubiquitous dead conifer that has almost become their logo), shop fronts, seaside resorts and our national love of dogs. The appeal of the photos in the book is the familiarity of their subject matter and their celebration of overlooked detail, revealing the reality -- and surreality -- of contemporary Britain. Over the past five years they have exhibited the photographs around the country in a 1969 mustard-coloured caravan - The Caravan Gallery - and the photos are accompanied by quotes from the gallery's visitor book.
About the Author
Jan Williams studied Fine Art in Portsmouth and works in a wide range of media from her studio at Art Space Portsmouth. She exhibits widely both in the UK and abroad. Chris Teasdale has worked in education, the travel industry and as a stained-glass artist before collaborating with Jan in a number of art- and travel-related projects and commissions. Their shared interests inspired them to set up The Caravan Gallery in 2000. Since then they have been touring the country, communing with the great British public, and exhibiting photographs and postcards made in response to places visited.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
They seem to have scoured most of the UK, taking photos that are revealing, humourous and sometimes very touching. This looks like it will be an ideal "Christmas Book" for presents this year.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Continuing in the tradition of the 'Crap Town' books this very wry and funny book captures the essence of the real Britain in a few hundred colour photos. Originally on display in the Caravan Gallery, a mustard-coloured 1969 home-from-home that tours the country and presents to whoever feels like stepping inside an affectionate look at our endearing shabbiness.
The two authors have scoured the land for some wonderfully offbeat images including little trains, markets, dogs, bins, derelict garages and shops, seaside, burnt out cars, picnics, toilets, food, litter or graffiti. A spread just called Chicken has eleven photos of premises such as Hentucky Fried Chicken, Chicken 'U' Like, Chicken Cottage and Chick 'O' Land. The chapter on Smut shows two street signs, Canal St. and Morgan Street both are missing the first letter of each word.
Scattered throughout the pages are several of the Caravan Gallery parody postcards like AWARD WINNING PORTSMOUTH with four photos including the recently torn down Tricorn Centre, RELAXING BRACKNELL showing four sad looking public benches, GARDENS OF ENGLAND: predictably suburban flagstone and concrete gardens and don't forget the dead conifers.
Wonderful though these photos are I thought it was unfortunate that they were let down by the book's design (so four stars). Magnum photographer Martin Parr in his book 'Think of England' (ISBN 0714839906) took a similar photographic take on the cliché of Englishness but in his book the images work so well because they were presented in the formal format of the photobook. I think Williams and Teasdale's work deserve a much better presentation than the bland layouts and dull typography in 'Welcome to Britain'. It is sort of ironic that these two brilliantly capture the ordinariness of British life only to have it presented in a very ordinary looking book.
2007 UPDATE The Caravan Gallery has issued another book 'Is Britain Great?' (ISBN 0955025818) in a proper photobook format.
The two authors have scoured the land for some wonderfully offbeat images including little trains, markets, dogs, bins, derelict garages and shops, seaside, burnt out cars, picnics, toilets, food, litter or graffiti. A spread just called Chicken has eleven photos of premises such as Hentucky Fried Chicken, Chicken 'U' Like, Chicken Cottage and Chick 'O' Land. The chapter on Smut shows two street signs, Canal St. and Morgan Street both are missing the first letter of each word.
Scattered throughout the pages are several of the Caravan Gallery parody postcards like AWARD WINNING PORTSMOUTH with four photos including the recently torn down Tricorn Centre, RELAXING BRACKNELL showing four sad looking public benches, GARDENS OF ENGLAND: predictably suburban flagstone and concrete gardens and don't forget the dead conifers.
Wonderful though these photos are I thought it was unfortunate that they were let down by the book's design (so four stars). Magnum photographer Martin Parr in his book 'Think of England' (ISBN 0714839906) took a similar photographic take on the cliché of Englishness but in his book the images work so well because they were presented in the formal format of the photobook. I think Williams and Teasdale's work deserve a much better presentation than the bland layouts and dull typography in 'Welcome to Britain'. It is sort of ironic that these two brilliantly capture the ordinariness of British life only to have it presented in a very ordinary looking book.
2007 UPDATE The Caravan Gallery has issued another book 'Is Britain Great?' (ISBN 0955025818) in a proper photobook format.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Forget all those glossy tourist guides to Britain you see in the travel section of the library, this is the only guide you need to really understand the pysche of modern Britain. See the places the average tourist wouldn't even know about. See Britain from the wacky persective of Teasdale and Williams, the way it really is, with the pictures to prove it. Visit the more septic than sceptered parts of Britain that we british all know about (but don't necessarily love), and all for less than the cost of two pints of warm british ale. You may even see yourself in one of the hundreds of postcard pictures adorning the pages of this quircky look at the real Britain.
It would be interesting to see other countries such as France treated to this concept of tourism photography and help us to understand the pysche of its inhabitants too.
Highly recommended.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Neither a celebration nor real life.
This book fails on so many levels.
1. It is physically too small. Lets face it, this kind of book is designed for a coffee table, yet it is barely bigger than a... Read more
1. It is physically too small. Lets face it, this kind of book is designed for a coffee table, yet it is barely bigger than a... Read more
Published on 20 July 2009 by Danny
I cried
Hailing from Portsmouth where so many of these shots were taken, I have hooted with laughter, not to say a little humiliation, to see this splendid city so portrayed. Read more
Published on 21 Feb 2008 by Chubworth
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