Cover Image: About Britain

About Britain

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Member Reviews

How very interesting! I like the routes explored in this book, one of them being 'Chilterns to Black Country: Stafford-Coventry-Oxford (104 miles). Each chapter really goes in depth - which may not be some people's cup of tea. It was informative and quite nice to read at a slow-ish pace, in my view.
Page count: 384
Author: Tim Cole
Themes: Travel, non-fiction, Britain, journey, Seventy Years & 1,345 Miles

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In the past, I haven't reviewed books that I haven't read. But, I have changed my mind. Firstly, I think that the fact that I couldn't finish a book is a valid criticism, and this is where we give feedback to the publisher. Secondly, I need to get my score up. I will not post this anywhere else but here. My rating will be based on what other people would think about this work.

I got about 30% into this book I think I have read too many of these books this year. Therefore, I had trouble getting motivated to read this work. However, I think it would make a great read for nature lovers with an interest in identity

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After discovering guidebooks written to coincide with the Festival of Britain in 1951, Tim Cole revisits some of the recommended routes 70 years later. Choosing just one journey from each guide, there were thirteen books in all, he sets off to discover what has changed and what has stayed the same.
Quite early on I realised that reading About Britain on a kindle was not ideal; I plan to buy a paperback when they are published in 2022. This is the sort of book you can dip into, perhaps when planning a trip of your own, as each chapter deals with a different part of the country, and not necessarily read all the way through in one go. I found the chapters dealing with East Anglia, and the Lowlands and Highlands of Scotland to be the most interesting as I knew the area and could visualise the routes taken. It would, however, be a good introduction when planning a visit to an area you do not know.
My only criticism is the use of Google Maps Street View for the tour of the lowlands of Scotland. I realise that lockdown prevented all but local travel at this point, but do not think this was quite as effective.
These guides were originally designed to encourage the growing number of motorists in 1951 to explore parts of this country not always easily reached by train, with an emphasis on post-war industry and manufacturing. About Britain is not really a travel book, but more a fascinating, well-researched history of the areas visited, detailing the decline of British industry and manufacturing, and what has sprung up in its place.
Thanks to Bloomsbury Continuum and NetGalley for a digital copy to review.

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I usually love books like this but for some reason I could not get into this one at all.

The author has driven the roads that were featured in the 1951 Festival of Britain guides. It's a book you can dip in and out of but I had opted to start at the beginning. It was not an area I was too familiar with and felt a little at odds with finding a connection with the writing.

Thinking I might do better with an area I knew well I opted for the East Midlands section. Unfortunately that too left me cold. The book is obviously well researched and goes into a lot of depth, at times reading more like a book suited to an academic rather than someone with a passing interest.

Maybe it is because the book is really about the view from the car rather than interacting with the places themselves that it wasn't really for me.

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A really interesting concept but I had some issues with the style. The fact that many of the trips were made with others - colleagues, friends and the authors own family - but everything was 'I did this' or 'I did that'. This jarred slightly and made me lose any connection with the author.
A book to dip in and out of - I don't think I could sit and read it from cover to cover.

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This was a very interesting and engaging read. It's not the type of book that I would necessarily read from cover to cover on one go. I prefer to dip in and out of it.
I am always interested in finding out little pieces of the past, am old shop sign, old signal boxes where there is no longer a railway, old converted buildings etc. This book is great for seeing how much an area has changed over the years.
I love reading about places that I am familiar with. This book is also good for giving me ideas of places to visit by car. I enjoyed reading this book and I would recommend it.

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Sadly the style and approach of this book just really didn't work for me
It felt like a poor quality guidebook where the author has visited the places but couldn't be bothered getting out of the car to explore them.
I appreciate the concept was a type of revisited driving guide but it left me cold. I tried selecting areas I knew after giving up on reading cover to cover but even then I scarcely recognised the trips covered.
On a side note we can't move for mayflies in Yorkshire at the moment, they're splattered all over the car windscreen so if he's still searching for them he should pop up, he won't even have to get out of the car to study them... At least I think they're mayflies.

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The idea for About Britain came to fruition while Tim Cole was browsing in an Oxfam charity shop book section when he came upon a rather sorry looking copy of About Britain No. 1. West Country. A New Guide Book with a portrait by Geoffrey Grigson while the black-and-white Festival of Britain logo in the bottom right-hand corner revealed it was published in 1951. After purchasing the book, he came across many more discarded copies of the series. Before long he had a complete set of all thirteen volumes and his thoughts turned to what he might do with these guides, all short (under 100 pages), mass-market guides.

Tim Cole’s objective in About Britain is to replicate the journeys featured in these thirteen guide books to reflect the change in Britain’s landscape, industry and infrastructure since they were initially printed seventy years ago. Exploring social, cultural, landscape and environmental change and continuity, this is a fascinating, richly described and compelling read with some well-placed humour interspersed throughout. If you enjoy reading about how our country has evolved over the last seven decades then this is a brilliant and eminently readable book. Highly recommended.

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One of my favourite genres of travel writing is the one where someone feels compelled to set off on a madcap trip after stumbling upon an obscure book in a secondhand shop. About Britain is a perfect example of this genre. Tim Cole amasses a collection of 1951 travel guides that were originally published as part of the Festival of Britain. He sets off on a road trip around Britain to see how much has changed since they were originally published.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was fascinating to see the contrast between Britain then and now. I found it fascinating to see how the publishers of the original guide were trying to portray post-war Britain. This is a fun, enjoyable read but it is also detailed and thought-provoking. The author has divided the book up into the different routes/areas of Britain so it means you can also dip into this book whenever you are planning a trip.

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Some surprising and interesting facts and descriptions come to light in this book and the author deserves a lot of praise for such detailed research. Nothing to stop the reader polishing the book off in one go but probably best dipped into, especially if you are visiting any of the areas. Those of you with very long memories might find the detail especially fascinating.

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I love reading about the country I live in, especially when it involves places I am familiar with. I found this amusing, informative and overall very interesting. A lovely read.

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I enjoyed this book, with many interesting facts. A little bit like Bill Bryson's books. Of course it is of most interest about the places where we are most familiar, such as holiday destinations of our local area.
A good book

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With travel still looking decidedly dubious, I felt it was time to see, and discover, more of the beautiful country I live in. As such, this book turned up at exactly the right time.

Author Tim Cole first came across, “About Britain No. 1 – West Country,” published in 1951 in a charity shop. Before long, he came across more and had gathered a full of set of volumes. The guides were produced to coincide with the 1951 Festival of Britain, designed to showcase a country rebuilding after WWII. After an attempt to organise bus tours, which failed, the guidebooks were aimed at motorists, in a time when a drive in the country was considered a day out. Each volume included a written portrait of an area and some suggested driving tours.

Cole decided to follow one route, randomly chosen, from each of the volumes and then takes us on a journey separated by seventy years and compares what he finds to the original book. From the West Country, through Wessex the Home Counties, East Anglia, the Chilterns, Wales, the Midlands, and Scotland, this is a charming read. The author both discovers, and re-discovers, the countryside, towns, villages, industries, tourist sites and infrastructure of the country. From National Parks, University’s, mills, Cathedrals, canals, markets, orchards and more. He discusses English vineyards, the invention of the hovercraft, the National Trust, the Forestry Commission, aviation, castles, cricket, Vikings, and Roman roads.

This volume has made me more eager than ever to head out and discover a country which – despite its modestly small size, is shadowed by history and has so much to explore. I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, to review.

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An interesting read. Tim Cole follows the routes described in handbooks developed by the Festival of Britain committee in 1951, marking the differences between the Britain of then and today.
On the way, he discusses the de-industrialisation of Britain, the development (or lack thereof) of architecture, the decline of cotton, and a host of other topics.
One sentence for me summed up the book (and perhaps Britain) "Driving along the valley road through a string of former mill towns, I wondered how far England - let alone Britain - could really be imagined as a single nation in the way those putting the Festival of Britain and these guidebooks together were so keen to affirm."
If I have a criticism of the book is that it is sometimes a little dry, more concerned with establishing facts than making observations. Mr Cole is no John Betjeman or even an Ian Nairn. I would have preferred more insight and less fact. But nonetheless it is an interesting read and one I enjoyed, particularly the areas I know well.

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A great book that I think will be enjoyed by all ages. This book taps into the current interest with 'staycations' and I think that this book will be enjoyed by pupils as a general interest book. It also would slot in nicely to the Travel Writing scheme of work as there are some really lovely passages in here that can be explored further.

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A fascinating read but not a quick read as quite in depth. I think it would be ideal as a dip in and out book maybe whilst doing the journey, which would be ideal. I found most interesting the parts of the UK I'm familiar with (Chapter 3; Home Counties and Chapter 5 Chilterns to Black Country) as I am sure would be the case for most readers and read those chapters straight off in their own right imagining the route in my head. My appetite, however, has been whetted to drive some of the routes in the future and, given the current climate, a good staycation book.

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I really enjoyed this book. I was familiar with a few of the routes or areas and it’s proved fascinating to read about the way in which they’ve changed. As a child in the 1950s,, I travelled everywhere by car with my parents, particularly around Scotland, Wales and the Lake District. Some of the routes in those areas remain relatively unchanged, which is in itself remarkable. Others have given way to industry, tourism, housing development and more.

Tim Cole’s research is detailed and he has an easy style of writing which draws the reader into the journey, making it easy to visualise. It’s a great book to dip into and it should appeal to anyone with any interest in social history or the countryside.

My thanks to the publisher for a review copy via Netgalley.

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Those of us with access to British TV will be more than aware of the Michael Portillo programmes, where he carouses round the world with a Victorian-era traveller's help guidebook, and allegedly compares and contrasts the world of then with the world of now, to social history ends, but more often than not gets forced by the producers to waste our time and his by making cheese, or learning how to Morris dance. This is a book along very similar lines, but happily without the hands-on filler. There were a full set of guides to self-directed routes across England made for the 1951 Festival of Britain, and our author has plucked one route from each, got himself to the start and used it and his car to get to its end, seeing what has changed in the interim seventy years – and what tells those original guide writers left about themselves on the page.

That is not at all to say that there are no asides or diversions. Indeed the book comes happily constructed from the incongruous topic. The very first chapter discusses forestry efforts, speed limits on country roads and the history of British vineyards in much more (lightly-given) detail than I would ever have expected. I knew nothing of the grand old National Trust estate carved in two by the M5 – a road built since the guides and so never driven on. Whether we're in Hampshire or Wessex next, more modern road schemes are to the fore, as is that well-known delight of southern England past, the watercress industry.

What the book does superbly is ruminate, given first-hand current eye-witnessing of relevant things, on the likes of the end of Coventry's carmaking industries. As a book easily shelved under 'travel' it might raise an eyebrow or two however – it seems to leave out how very different the person of today is from the person of the 1950s who was directed around a mahoosive 147-mile loop from Hereford into South Wales and back. I don't think it quite covers the nature of these days out as well as it does the differences seen through the windshield. There are copious instances of our author getting himself lost courtesy of the wrong turn, but little of what he felt doing the self-imposed missions, and if they even felt like the Reithian tourism they were designed to be.

No, where this takes us places is via its timeline, and it's fascinating to see North Wales turn its slate pit remains into sports venues, and to learn about the birth of Conservation Orders – and those words are not ones I expected to type. I see the book as the result not just of the driving and observing but copious diligent historical researches afterwards, piecing together numerous instances of what 1950s Britain was thinking and what has been happening over the past seventy years. The volume closes with the author thinking aloud about a repeat exercise, done a further seventy years after his recce. While our culture will still be churning out the likes of "Michael, you've got ten minutes and those bagpipes – Action!", I would also relish a look at a sequel if done as well as this.

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I really enjoyed this book in which Tim Cole replicates where possible the journeys that are featured in the About Britain travel guides which were originally published in 1951 as part of the Festival of Britain. The original guides concentrated on the industrial areas of Britain as the idea was to showcase the country as being forward thinking and aspirational, optimistic for the future. So this is an unusual travel book but is very interesting, there have been lots of changes over the years, just as well as all of those industries featured were so bad for the environment. I also enjoyed the personal aspects of the book as the author had various companions with him on some of the journeys. I was a wee bit disappointed that the one journey which he wasn't able to do in reality was the local to me drive over to Fife and on to Dundee, it had to be done via Google Earth due to the pandemic and lockdown, but I think Tim Cole must have been even more disappointed about that than I was.

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I have never read the original guide on which this one was 'based', but this is a fascinating read, showing how Britain has changed in nearly 70 years.

Was a little slow to begin with and then before I knew it was at the end!

Would make a fascinating TV programme.

Recommended.

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