Customer Reviews:
 Boring Postcards August 13, 2006
Dr. Iain S. Mclean (Oxford, UK)
The funniest book I have read all year. It made being laid up in a ski resort with a ruptured ligament tolerable
Far from Boring September 15, 2005
Mr. A. Belsey
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
The title of this book is very misleading, because the postcards are far from boring. They provide a fascinating insight into the architecture, cars and clothing of the 1950s and 1960s, with motorways, shopping centres, suburbia, factories, holiday camps, chalets, caravans and much else. I suspect that quite of a bit of what was then regarded as the best of modern architecture has since been demolished, so there are indispensable historical records here too. Nor are the postcards boring on the technical side: the picture of Budleigh Salterton, with its foreground and background, diagonal lines and a wealth of detail, is a brilliantly composed photograph. The picture of the nuclear reactor at Dounreay is like a piece of modern abstract art, with its blocks, cylinders and sphere. Many of the others are also excellent photographs, which is not surprising, as they must have been taken by professionals. This book is stuffed with art and history, and there is not one boring postcard in the whole collection.
Sublime, comic, historic, a must have! January 24, 2005
mrcambridge (UK)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is a very unusual book, but gripping, holding many many photographs of old postcards from a very dull era of the UK, yet they are fascinating to look at today. How architects and builders got away with some hideous buildings only a few decades ago is incredible. What a long way we have come, looking at the exciting postcards for motorways, service stations, power stations and holiday camps amoung others.This book is very hard to categorise, but once you've seen it, you'll want it!
Boring postcards, brilliant book! July 19, 2004
Mr. P. Lewin (Bristol, England)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
When I first picked this book up in a high street bookshop, I was gripped by it immediately! Even having lived through the 1970s, the decade often called the one taste forgot, I couldn't believe the range of subjects photographed. In the '60s when motorways were new and thus considered exciting, perhaps one could understand the desire to picture the M1, and various parts of service stations. But who on earth wanted to buy photographs showing traffic on the A40, or indeed to celebrate Carlton Court Shopping Centre, Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol (which I've known for 30 years, and it doesn't look any better now than it did then!). Would people be so proud now of Preston Bus Station as they were then? And would anyone really be keen to buy pictures of Butlins' Reception and Dining Halls, or Travelodge bedrooms.In creating this book, Martin Parr has reminded readers of a now bygone era, when the now hideous was considered magnificent. I could hardly contain myself. If you're 30+ or into architecture, this book is a must-have. As it is if you're a keen photographer, or just want an easy read to make you laugh.
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