Perfect England: The Isle of Wight in the 1960s - Hardcover

Clark, Roger George

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 190434965X ISBN 13: 9781904349655

Publisher: The Dovecote Press, 2008

Synopsis

During the 1960s, whilst still a student, the broadcaster Roger George Clark, spent his holidays photographing the Isle of Wight. For forty years the pictures lay forgotten in boxes. Until Now! Seen today, and published for the first time, they provide a fascinating portrait of a world and way of life that has all but vanished.

Here is the Isle of Wight untouched by the Sixties revolution, of pipe-smoking men in grey flannels, women in floral dresses, quiet country lanes and traffic-free towns. Despite the popularity of its resorts and yachting at Cowes, the Isle of Wight in the 1960s was still a rural backwater largely untroubled by the accelerating pace of change elsewhere in Britain. But the 200 black and white photographs in this book accurately reflect a world in which many of us grew up. They mirror a safer - perhaps simpler age - a lost but perfect England.

About this title

Review:

BY SAL ... Even though it's only the last day of October, many people are already starting to buy their Christmas presents.

If you have someone on your list that you always struggle to find something suitable for, how about this new book by broadcaster Roger George Clark?

`PERFECT ENGLAND - The Isle of Wight in the 1960s' contains 200 black and white period photos, including seven pages of Ventnor as it was (as largely still is).

Roger took the photos during the 1960s whilst holidaying on the Isle of Wight and tells us that within the 200 pages, you'll discover a world of old churches, thatched cottages, steam trains and bucket-and-spade holidays.

Not forgetting the Royal yacht `Britannia' riding at anchor during Cowes Week, paddle steamers thrashing across the Solent, Lord Mountbatten opening a church fete and the future prime minister, James Callaghan, enjoying himself at a garden show.

Of course it wouldn't be the 60s on the Island if Roger hadn't included photos of the earliest hovercraft `lumbering ashore'.

If you don't have anyone to buy this for, treat yourself. It's packed with nostalgia and should bring back some wonderful memories of times gone by. -- VENTNOR BLOG - 31 OCTOBER 2008

IMAGES OF CHANGE - Pictures recall IOF W of 60s - By RICHARD WRIGHT ...

Times they were-a-changin' in the 1960s. We'd passed out of post-war austerity and still had a car industry. We were a land of The Beatles and brass bands, of failed flying boats and hovercraft taking off.

While much was leaping ahead, a great deal remained the same, the past rubbed shoulders with an ever-changing present as social change gathered pace.

Luckily, there was someone there to record the process and some of his work has now been published.

There have been many books charting older Wight but there is a new kid on the block from multi-media man Roger George Clark.

He's a professional broadcaster, writer and photographer, who has taken tens of thousands of images in this country and abroad.

Clark's pictures have been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery and are housed in its permanent collection. They are also valued for marking their place in time, held as they are in the archives of the British Library.

The front cover shows pretty-as-a-picture Brighstone post office, outside it a Morris delivery van. On the back the `Queen Mary' steams past Cowes.

Sandwiched between are images of the special and what at the time they were taken could have been considered prosaic.

It's just when you look at the Bob Dylan look-alikes, Shanklin when it had a pristine pier, the baby in a coach-built pram, the lady in a glorious blancmange of a hat and the train on the Newport platform after it hit the Beeching buffers that you value the fact Clark was their with his Rolleicord Vb camera. -- THE ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY PRESS - 17 OCTOBER 2008

From the Author:

If you long for the past, or simply wonder what England was like before rock 'n' roll and the sexual revolution, this is the book for you!

During the 1960s, whilst still a student, I spent my holidays photographing the Isle of Wight. Alas, few people were interested in my photos then. So I hid them away for forty years and forgot about them.

But recently, when I looked at the negatives again, I realised I was looking at a lost world - England as it used to be - a world of old churches, thatched cottages, steam trains and bucket-and-spade holidays. There was the Royal yacht 'Britannia' riding at anchor during Cowes Week. Paddle steamers thrashed across the Solent. I could see Lord Mountbatten opening a church fete and the future prime minister, James Callaghan, enjoying himself at a garden show.

And there were the great Cunard passenger ships 'Queen Mary' and 'Queen Elizabeth', plus the world's fastest liner the 'United States', steaming past the Island on their way to New York. A giant flying-boat lay mothballed in Cowes. Wooden boats and old-fashioned yachts filled the harbours.

And you could also see a new technological wonder - the earliest hovercraft - lumbering ashore. All gone, but preserved on film. I've selected 200 of the most intriguing images for this book and hope they bring back many memories of times past.

About this edition

• Publisher: The Dovecote Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 190434965X
• ISBN 13: 9781904349655
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 128