Capsule book reviews in 255 characters or fewer. Ish. A reading diary (1st Jan 2019 onwards) by Eamonn Griffin.
Photographs of decommissioned cinemas, mostly sited in the north of England. Charming, elegiac, and melancholy in equal measure, offering a glimpse of the luxury of classic Odeons, of the turn to bingo to keep these buildings alive, and of workplaces and ways of life left behind. Recommended.
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My own books are here, if that’s your thing. Newest is noir thriller East of England.
A personal geography of a Lincolnshire housing estate. Photographs and text blend to offer a discussion of the uses made and lived experiences of post-war estate dwelling. Experiential rather than nostalgic, the book celebrates modernist planning, the egalitarianism of what might be seen as bland conformity, and the ways in which use reinscribes space. Lots to think about.
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My own books here, if that’s your thing. Newest is noir thriller East of England.
A documentary record in photographs of mining communities in 1980s Northumberland. Epic and elegiac without being sentimental, the end of an era, an industry and to some extent a community captured in these compelling black-and-white images. A storming social history neither glamorizing nor criticising its subjects. Hugely recommended.
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My own books here, if that’s your thing. Newest is noir thriller East of England.
A photo-book of the surviving Art Deco cinemas originally built for the Odeon chain. A lovely bit of social history; each image is presented with a brief overview of the building in question’s life. Some continue as movie houses, others are bingo halls, are derelict, churches, shops, nightclubs. As the book indicates, fewer than half of the 140 built remain, and none of them are unchanged.
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My own books are here, if that’s your thing. Newest is noir thriller East of England.
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