Beside the Seaside

Awash with atmospheric pictures, this charming album captures the very essence of summers by the sea: warm sand between the toes, sun glinting brilliantly from a true blue sky, windswept beach chairs, sunburned beauties, towel-wrapped children, lovers in a sandy embrace. Each chapter draws on an individual theme of the British seashore: working life, architecture, fairs and concessions, bathing beauties, illuminated piers and promenades, glitzy pleasure domes. Novelist Joseph Connolly--a droll chronicler of British custom--tells the stories behind the photos, drawing out the romance, the excitement, the hilarious eccentricity of it all. Wish you were there? You almost are.