Beside the Seaside by Jane Struthers
Sometimes I just have to feature a book because of the cover design. Beside the Seaside by Jane Struthers, reviewed at the weekend in Britain’s Daily Telegraph, is one such book. A nice job from the designers at Ebury.
Beside the Seaside is a compendium of British beaches and seaside communities, and covers the development of holiday-making during the Victorian era to beach games and Donald McGill’s saucy seaside postcards. I’m trying to think of my favourite British beaches – I love the sand dunes and castle at Harlech, the vast beaches at Borth (but watch out for the tides) and Westward Ho!, the absolute tackiness of Blackpool where I will always remember walking into the first pub we came to on the sea-front and seeing a dancing girl inside a cage and Chesil Beach in Dorset.