The Face of Britain: South-Eastern Survey. Richard Wyndham (H/B) 1940 VINTAGE

 THE FACE OF BRITAIN: SOUTH-EASTERN SURVEY by Richard Wyndham.

This book, by the author of The Gentle Savage and Painter's Progress, is described by him as a "last look round" the district in which he lives: Sussex, Kent and Surrey. "I have travelled at haphazard through South-Eastern England," he writes, "but for the most part on side roads only, and through villages and lesser towns.2 The result is a narrative packed with personal observation, good stories and antiquarian and historical knowledge; a book that is at once a mine of information for the actual wanderer, and of enjoyment for the "armchair traveller of the second great war," to whom it is dedicated.

Richard Wyndham is well-known as a writer and as a painter: one of his pictures is reproduced in colour as a frontispiece. He is perhaps less known as a photographer, but in this book he emerges as one of particular talent, for all of the 140-odd photographs that it contains are his own work. They provide an enchanting accompaiment to the text, which they illustrate throughout with art, wit and insight. In every sense of the word this book is a "one man show," and as such a topgraphical achievement of the highest order.

 

To The Arm-Chair Travellers of the Second Great War

Publishers' Note: This book was almost completed on the outbreak of the war, when the author was called up on active service. Under the circumstances it was impossible for him to complete certain districts, particularly Surrey, as comprehensively as he would haver liked, or to make a final check-up on certain references and anecdotes. It was also thought best not to attempt to revise the book in view of recent events, but rather to leave it as it is - a nostalgic memory of England in the last months of peace... NOVEMBER 1939.

A hardback published in 1940 by B.C. Batsford Ltd.