A History of Southend: Amazon.co.uk: Ian Yearsley: Books

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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A well illustrated outline history of Southend, 30 Dec 2001

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This is the latest in a line of pictorial histories of Southend on Sea. The first, by Jessie Payne, was published in 1985 and consisted of around 140 pages, mainly photographs, in 16 sections each with a few pararaphs of introduction. In 1993 Stephen Pewsey produced "The Book of Southend". Again around 140 pages but this time about 40 were devoted to text. Now, in 2001, we have "A History of Southend". This, if you believe the blurb on the dustjacket, is the "first for a century to provide a comprehensive chronological history of the town." It isn't as to date no one has approached this criteria. What it is is another in the style of the previous two offerings. In this case the 140 pages are split almost 50 - 50 with just under 70 pages in total being text and the rest photographs. Presumably the history of a "century" ago is Burrows "Southend on Sea and District Historical Notes" published in 1909. This last is the nearest to a comprehensive history of Southend yet published although,as can be seen from the title, it is really a compilation of notes on the history. The town still awaits the attention of a real historian of the stature of Hilda Grieve whose "The Sleepers and the Shadows" two volumes on Chelmsford is a bench mark against which to date no "history" of Southend can be compared. There is no way the curerent book under review can be called "comprehensive" if this is meant to mean "in depth" when it only has somewhat less than 70 pages of text available to the author. As a "history" of the kind the dust jacket claims it is an obvious failure. In the space available the author can only skim through Southend's past. The history of the Priory up to the dissolution is, for example,dealt with in around 4 paragraphs! A serious history this is not. What it is, however, is a very good pictorial account of Southend and compares very favourably with "The Book of Southend." The choice of photographs is well made and the bulk have not appeared before and this is particularly welcome. Assessed under this more limited criteria the book works well and should be welcome by many who have no previous knowledge of the district's history. It is a good read and would have been even better if the editorial staff at Phillimore had managed to restrain the author's almost unbridled enthusiasm for using brackets! They appear in almost every paragraph and rapidly become both an irritant and a blockage to reading the text. On one occasion the author closes a bracket and, without pause, opens another! On another occasion he closes a bracket,links two words, and then opens another! In the vast majority of cases a simple comma would have been much better and would have kept the text flowing so much better. Presumably the author is not responsible for the grandiose claims on the dust jacket and I have reviewed it in the much more limited sense of the pictorial history. Treat it as some really good photographs and (ignoring if you can the brackets!) a well written text which, in outline form brings us up to date, and you have a really good book. I'm not sure about the price. Almost 17 pounds is a lot of money but presumably such a book can only have a limited appeal and small print runs are expensive for publishers. Without the claim on the dust jacket (and those damn brackets!) I would have thought about giving it five stars. With these blemishes it just sneaks in as a four star offering. I know I will return to it often, gritting my teeth over the brackets, but enjoying the photographs.

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A History of Southend (Hardcover)

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