Attracting critics as well as fans, including fellow Magnum member Henri Cartier-Bresson, who remains "highly suspicious" of Parr's photography, he has never flinched from his content, saying of it, "certainly my photographs have a critical bite to them. I knew I was middle-class ...". It is also something Val Williams is conscious of in her lively essays that accompany the image selections from his career, and which follow him from the North of England to Ireland, back to the Northwest, and then down to Bristol. From his early days taking snaps at Butlin's to his strongest projects such as The Last Resort, The Cost of Living and Think of England, he renders his subject curiously denuded, despite frequent heavy adornment. Of similar kitchen-sink, kitschy curiosity as Pulp explore in their so-English music, Parr is less concerned with the "ordinary" than with the life less ordinary, such as holidays or social occasions, at which we exhibit our most excruciating foibles. Interestingly, when he moves outside his native land, as with Small World, his pictures remain technically superb, but lose the intuitive third dimension which his engrossed Englishness provides when observing his own. Parr may divide the critics at times, but this tasty body of work argues persuasively for his provocative and accomplished take on life, snapped from the inside looking in. --David Vincent --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Synopsis
A comprehensive mid-career retrospective of the work of well-known Magnum photographer Martin Parr, including previously unpublished early work. This major retrospective is the first time that the whole of Parr's career has been seriously assessed and includes fascinating and previously unpublished early work. This includes his startling and original 1974 installation Home Sweet Home, early black-and-white photographs of the people and places of Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire where he lived and worked in the 1970s, photographs from Ireland and Salford, and of course a selection of the very best images from all of his published books including The Last Resort, The Cost of Living and Signs of the Times. With unlimited access to Parr's archives and quoting from extensive interviews, distinguished writer and curator Val Williams charts Parr's life and career, revealing insights into his influences and attitudes and setting him in a new context by assessing his importance as an artist. The book also includes fascinating illustrative photographs of Parr and the people and places of his career.

In addition, a special appendix shows some of his many collections of ephemera from wallpaper to commemorative plates, lapel badges to souvenir models of Lenin and JFK.