While at the aforementioned antiques market i discovered a series of books from the 1940's called 'Britain in pictures'. I was imediatly drawn in by the cover illustrations...
From Shelf appeal:
'The Britain in Pictures series of books was published in the late 1930s and 1940s by Collins. It was edited by the then literary editor of the Spectator,Walter James Turner.
The overall aim of the series was to tell a social history of Britain, perhaps spurred on by the war and a subsequent re-appropriation of nationalism in all its forms. Although the series ran with the subtitle ‘The British People in Pictures’, the books were as much about writing as pictures. The roll call of authors reads like a veritable who’s-who of the literary, political and arts worlds of the period. From John Piper on British Romantic Artists, Cecil Beaton onEnglish Photographers and Edith Sitwell on English Women to Graham Greene on British Dramatists and John Betjeman on English Cities and Small Towns.
A uniformly designed set of over 100 books, they look great as a collection.'
After a little research i found that there are 132 in the series - listed HERE. I cant find many images online unfortunately, hense the rather awful ones here, but each has a wonderfully simple but delicate illustration on the cover. The type varies from title to title, but they all feel like a solid collection. I need to start this collection!!
There is nothing wrong with judging a book by its cover if the covers look like this.
