Author: Simon Inglis Publisher: Played in Britain ISBN: 9781848020573 Category : Sports & Recreation Languages : en Pages : 360
Book Description
From its first century Roman amphitheatre to the 21st century Olympic Stadium at Stratford, London has always been a city of spectacles and sporting fever. Profusely illustrated with detailed maps and in-depth research, Played in London is the most ambitious offering yet from the acclaimedPlayed in Britain series. Capital sport guaranteed.
Author: Matthew Taylor Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1000071367 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 249
Book Description
Sport and the Home Front contributes in significant and original ways to our understanding of the social and cultural history of the Second World War. It explores the complex and contested treatment of sport in government policy, media representations and the everyday lives of wartime citizens. Acknowledged as a core component of British culture, sport was also frequently criticised, marginalised and downplayed, existing in a constant state of tension between notions of normality and exceptionality, routine and disruption, the everyday and the extraordinary. The author argues that sport played an important, yet hitherto neglected, role in maintaining the morale of the British people and providing a reassuring sense of familiarity at a time of mass anxiety and threat. Through the conflict, sport became increasingly regarded as characteristic of Britishness; a symbol of the ‘ordinary’ everyday lives in defence of which the war was being fought. Utilised to support the welfare of war workers, the entertainment of service personnel at home and abroad and the character formation of schoolchildren and young citizens, sport permeated wartime culture, contributing to new ways in which the British imagined the past, present and future. Using a wide range of personal and public records – from diary writing and club minute books to government archives – this book breaks new ground in both the history of the British home front and the history of sport.
Author: Simon Inglis Publisher: Historic England ISBN: Category : Architecture Languages : en Pages : 146
Book Description
Britain's sporting heritage is unrivalled. But what of sport's architectural heritage? 'Played in Manchester' is the first of a series of titles celebrating this significant, yet often overlooked, aspect of our social and cultural history.
Author: Julian Barnes Publisher: Vintage ISBN: 030755595X Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 256
Book Description
BOOKER PRIZE FINALIST • From the internationally acclaimed bestselling author The Sense of an Ending comes a "wickedly funny” novel (The New York Times) about an idyllic land of make-believe in England that gets horribly and hilariously out of hand. Imagine an England where all the pubs are quaint, where the Windsors behave themselves (mostly), where the cliffs of Dover are actually white, and where Robin Hood and his merry men really are merry. This is precisely what visionary tycoon, Sir Jack Pitman, seeks to accomplish on the Isle of Wight, a "destination" where tourists can find replicas of Big Ben (half size), Princess Di's grave, and even Harrod's (conveniently located inside the tower of London). Martha Cochrane, hired as one of Sir Jack's resident "no-people," ably assists him in realizing his dream. But when things go awry, Martha develops her own vision of the perfect England. Julian Barnes delights us with a novel that is at once a philosophical inquiry, a burst of mischief, and a moving elegy about authenticity and nationality.
Author: Richard Holt Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 9780192852298 Category : Great Britain Languages : en Pages : 428
Book Description
This lively and deeply researched history - the first of its kind - goes beyond the great names and moments to explain how British sport has changed since 1800, and what it has meant to ordinary people. It shows how the way we play reflects not just our lives as citizens of a predominantlyurban and industrial world, but what is especially distinctive about British sport. Innovators in abandoning traditional, often brutal sports, and in establishing a code of `fair play', the British were also pioneers in popular sports and in the promotion of organized spectator events.Modern media coverage of sport, gambling, violence and attitudes towards it, nationalism, and the role of sport in sustaining male identity are also explored, and the book is rich in illuminating and entertaining anecdotes, which it combines with a serious historical understanding of a fascinatingsubject.
Author: Angela Bartie Publisher: UCL Press ISBN: 1787354059 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 344
Book Description
Restaging the Past is the first edited collection devoted to the study of historical pageants in Britain, ranging from their Edwardian origins to the present day. Across Britain in the twentieth century, people succumbed to ‘pageant fever’. Thousands dressed up in historical costumes and performed scenes from the history of the places where they lived, and hundreds of thousands more watched them. These pageants were one of the most significant aspects of popular engagement with the past between the 1900s and the 1970s: they took place in large cities, small towns and tiny villages, and engaged a whole range of different organised groups, including Women’s Institutes, political parties, schools, churches and youth organisations. Pageants were community events, bringing large numbers of people together in a shared celebration and performance of the past; they also involved many prominent novelists, professional historians and other writers, as well as featuring repeatedly in popular and highbrow literature. Although the pageant tradition has largely died out, it deserves to be acknowledged as a key aspect of community history during a period of great social and political change. Indeed, as this book shows, some traces of ‘pageant fever’ remain in evidence today.
Author: Ian Gordon Publisher: ISBN: Category : Architecture Languages : en Pages : 304
Book Description
Swimming is Britain's most popular participation sport. Nearly one in four people swim at least once a month, with around 80 million visits to swimming pools recorded every year. Surprisingly, although public baths have formed a vital part of community life since an 1846 Act of Parliament, their story has never been told in book form until now. Great Lengths , the eighth book in the acclaimed Played in Britain series, traces the development of indoor public baths and pools, from the earliest subscription baths of the Georgian period and the first municipal baths in Liverpool in 1829, to the current generation of leisure pools with their flumes and potted palm trees. In both the public and private sectors the golden era of pool design fell between the 1880s and 1914, when over 600 baths were constructed, many rich in architectural detail and technological innovation. The magnificent Victoria Baths in Manchester completed in 1906 (2003 winner of BBC2 Restoration series) set new standards for opulence. Birmingham's Balsall Heath Baths (1907), London's Haggerston Baths (1904) and similar establishments in Hull, Nottingham and Glasgow equally reflected the civic pride of their creators, as greater awareness of hygiene and physical fitness brought safe swimming and recreation to the urban masses. A further burst of activity between the wars saw a new generation of concrete and glass Art Deco baths and in the 1960s these were joined by classic Modern designs. Great Lengths is no mere exercise in nostalgia. Scores of Victorian and Edwardian baths have been allowed to deteriorate. Dozens remain closed and the subject of long running campaigns for restoration. Yet many modern baths built in the late 20th century have also been found wanting. For this reason, this book will serve as an important reference for anyone involved in the current debate, whether as swimmers or providers.
Author: W. Heath Robinson Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic ISBN: 9780715655313 Category : Art Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
Charming, eccentric, endlessly inventive, Heath Robinson's unforgettable drawings perfectly capture the peculiar character of the British nation at leisure.
Author: Simon Inglis
Author: Matthew Taylor
Author: Arthur R. Taylor
Author: Wray Vamplew
Author: Simon Inglis
Author: Julian Barnes
Author: Richard Holt
Author: Angela Bartie
Author: Ian Gordon
Author: W. Heath Robinson