Postcard From The Past
Format:Paperback
Publisher:HarperCollins Publishers
Published:31st Oct '19
Should be back in stock very soon
This collection features amusing, bizarre, and poignant messages from vintage postcards, showcasing a unique glimpse into the past. It highlights the charm and quirks of human communication through time.
Postcard From The Past, curated by Tom Jackson with an introduction by Mark Haddon, presents a unique collection of real messages found on the backs of vintage postcards. This compilation showcases a delightful mix of humor, oddity, and poignant moments, offering readers a glimpse into the lives and thoughts of those who sent them. Each postcard serves as a window into the past, capturing the essence of human experience in a charming and often amusing way.
The book has garnered praise from various authors and critics, highlighting its ability to entertain and evoke nostalgia. Jason Hazeley describes it as sublimely funny, while Jill Mansell shares her enthusiasm by stating that it has become her favorite book, surpassing even her favorite Twitter account. The collection stands out not only for its humor but also for its emotional depth, as Robin Ince notes the haunting quality of the messages, which evoke memories of childhood.
Readers will find themselves captivated by the blend of hilarity and occasional eeriness that characterizes the postcards. Charlie Higson remarks on the book's examination of British culture, while Samira Ahmed points out its ability to be both poignant and unsettling. With endorsements highlighting its beauty and humor, Postcard From The Past promises to be a thought-provoking and entertaining read, appealing to anyone with an appreciation for the whimsical and the nostalgic.
‘Resurrecting these postcards, relics of forgotten times and forgotten holidays, was the simplest and most brilliant idea. Tom Jackson combines the images with just a few of the words scribbled on the back, and his eye for the choice sentence, the perfect phrase, is miraculous. Thanks to his assiduous, obsessive work as collector and curator, each one of these postcards becomes a poem, a short story, an elegy for lost England, a work of art’ Jonathan Coe
‘What a funny, clever, poignant idea. Postcard From The Past contains not just 150 very short stories, each one of which bears comparison with the work of Alan Bennett, Stevie Smith and Marcel Proust, but also lovely, picturesque views of coves, chines, promenades, escarpments and the Museum and Art Gallery, Doncaster. You will wish you were there’ Andy Miller, author of The Year of Reading Dangerously
‘A deadpan miscellany of wan nostalgia, profound melancholy, stoic humour and inexplicable dread. The necessary survival text for post-Brexit Britain’ Andrew Male
'I loved this book so very much. Sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking, this is a beautiful collection of tiny windows into the stories of other people's lives’ Joanna Cannon, author of The Trouble with Goats and Sheep
‘Brilliant and hilarious’ Jeremy Dyson, The League of Gentlemen
‘The most addictively British Twitter feed ever has become a book. I may never leave the house again’ Viv Groskop
‘Each card is like an unfinished one act play. I find myself filling in the blanks’ Adrian Edmondson
‘The bleak yet beautiful poetry of people at their leisure is a joy to read’ Phill Jupitus
‘A gorgeous pre-Twitter look at life through a holiday lens’ Jenny Éclair
‘Are there awards for Most Hilarious Yet Touching Yet Profound Bathroom/Coffee Table/Gift Book of the Year? If so, this book wins HANDS DOWN’ Amanda Palmer
ISBN: 9780008351816
Dimensions: 150mm x 208mm x 13mm
Weight: 300g
176 pages