Recommended Nostalgia Books


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I recently bought several books in the Scrapbook series compiled by Robert Opie. They are approximately 15ins x 11ins and have around 60 pages depending on the decade selected. The books show photographs of items from the particular decade. As an example The 1960s Scrapbook has photos of tableware, kitchen products, food and drink, chocolates (boxes and bars)ice lollies, sweet cigarettes, cigarette packets, washing and cleaning materials, cosmetics, fashion, dolls, magazine covers, teen publications, album covers, Beatles memorabilia, radios, Coronation Street memorabilia, Radio & T V Times covers, Film posters, James Bond products, cars, holiday posters and products, comics, games and toys, The books are fascinating and bring back many memories from the particular decade. The decades covered by specific books are Victorian Edwardian 1910s 1920s 1930s Wartime 1950s 1960s 1970s and Royal Scrapbook.

Have you got a Nostalgia Book you would recommend?

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Born in St Anns & living there until I was 8 years old, and then visiting my grandma regularly in the 60s & 70s, I have loads of memories of the old place. I'm guessing there are many ex "St Annians" on here & some of them will have this book, which I'm often dipping into to relive those days - "St Anns Nottingham: Inner city voices" by Ruth I Johns. It's a really hefty book, full of peoples' memories & old photgraphs.

Also the series that Doug Whitworth put together, containing many old photos of Notts, plus some he took himself - most famously the flooding of West Bridgford & The Meadows.

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I collect books among other things about Nottingham & I have too many to recommend them all but here are a few.

Nottingham in Focus Evening Post (photos os Frank Stevenson(1989) ISBN 1-85563-011-7

Nottingham Then Evening Post(Archive Publications) (1988) ISBN 0-948946-26-1

Victorian Nottingham (20 volumes) Richard Iliffe & Wilfred Baguley (1970 -83)

Edwardian Nottingham (3 volumes) " " " " (1978-83)

The problem with buying books of photographs is that many appear in more than one book

Blores Book shop 203 Mansfield is worth a visit opens 11am Monday - Saturday

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An interesting and informative book about Nottingham is Portrait Of Nottingham by Emrys Bryson, who used to work on the Evening Post. It was published in 1974, priced at £2.50, but I believe its now out of print. Chapters covered Nottingham over the years and included a chapter on As She Is Spoke with phrases such as Arkattit and Wigorn av uz dinnaz. Other chapters included Fun And Games, In Praise of Women and Secret Of Success. Well worth getting hold of a copy if possible

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Another book worth looking out for.

Nottingham Old and New By Guy M Denison. ISBN 0-7158-1039-1

Published in 1973

The "old" is late 19th early 20th century the "new" is 1973.

Although now 40 years old the book is still of interest.

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An interesting and informative book about Nottingham is Portrait Of Nottingham by Emrys Bryson, who used to work on the Evening Post. It was published in 1974, priced at £2.50, but I believe its now out of print. Chapters covered Nottingham over the years and included a chapter on As She Is Spoke with phrases such as Arkattit and Wigorn av uz dinnaz. Other chapters included Fun And Games, In Praise of Women and Secret Of Success. Well worth getting hold of a copy if possible

Blores book shop on Mansfield Road had a copy the last time I paid a visit a couple of weeks ago.

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Yes but it is now one of only two proper second hand book shops left in Nottingham

The other is Blores other shop on Mansfield Road Sherwood.

Blores is always worth a visit and they have lots of local stuff.

I bought four of my directories from Blores. he still has some but are expensive(but a fair price)

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Some more nostalgia books I have that might be of interest are:-
A 1950s Childhood
A 1960s Childhood
A 1970s Childhood
A 1980s Childhood
A 1970s Teenager
The Little Book of the 1950s
The Little Book of the 1960s
From Ration Book to ebook

They are all published by the History Press – link to their site below. They also publish a lot of the books about Nottingham. Obviously you can search on the site for a particular book or subject to get details about them.

http://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/

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Forgive me, but a lot of the books mentioned here are of the same type. Mostly professionally taken photos, presenting the city as the City Fathers would have it presented. The reason I like the St Anns book I mentioned earlier, is that the majority of photos are family/personal photos, reflecting everyday life in an inner city area of Nottingham, that became very important in terms of housing redevelopment and its effect on the people thrown out of their homes and how they later came to terms with their new circumstances, sometimes miles away from where they used to live. I believe there's a similar book about Bilborough, though I've never seen it.

How many photos do we need of the old Council House, the Castle(?), Goose Fair, Drury Hill & Broad Marsh (oh alright), visits from Field Marshall Montgomery & the Royals? Give me the real nitty-gritty every time!

And I agree, Geoff Blore's shops are a treasure trove, the only true second-hand bookshops in Nottingham.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Ate breakfast at a little cafe in Surprise, AZ yesterday morning, it also has quite a few second hand books for sale there. Was browsing while waiting for the food to arrive and spotted a book that made me look twice. Nottingham, An Illustrated History. Didn't expect that in sunny AZ, so bought it for a dollar.

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But I think the directories are the most interesting.(no photographs ;))

My earliest directory is dated 1844 the latest 1971

The only problem with directories is the are hard to come by & can be quite expensive.

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A well observed account of Nottinghamshire life in the late 19th century can be found in DH Lawrence's "Sons and Lovers"

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An excellent read Siddha. My ex father-in-law's grandfather worked with Lawrence's father down't pit. Apparently, Lawrence was thought to be gay by the local mining community because he was not rough and ready like the other boys.

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I often use the Opie 1950's book for reference. I must buy the rest of the series at some point.

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  • 1 year later...

In a second hand book shop I found a very good book about Nottingham.It is a Pevenser Architectural Guide of Nottingham. It is in mint condition, published in 2008 and signed by Elain Harwood, the author. There are excellent chapters on different areas of the city, with maps and notes for walks. The text gives loads of detail about buildings and there are some quite interesting photos. I had never heard of Watson Fothergill until I read posts on Nottstalgia. The book has a photo of the newspaper office on Upper Parliament Street showing the "Gothic colonnaded tower" on the corner of King Street. This is by Fothergill. My dad worked there. I remember being ill with earache and after being taken to see the doctor mum had to take me into the city to get the medicine from the late night chemist. Dad was at work and we went to see him at the front office of the newspaper which was in that tower. It fascinated me but I never realised how attractive the brickwork and construction is until I saw the picture in this book. I think I need to visit Nottingham and have a good look around!

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