Yesterday saw me wandering around the troubled Market Harborough Antiques Market. I won't go into the appalling way the local council are treating their electorate, because you can read about it here in a piece written by the admirable Wartime Housewife who now regularly exhibits in the Market Hall on Sundays. Finding I only had 50p in my pocket after the rest had been extorted from me by my Youngest Offspring, I was relieved to find this photograph in a box for exactly that amount. But where is it? This isn't a revival of the Where's That Then? posts that once graced this blog (at least you did something back then- Ed.) , as I haven't a clue. Except there may be one or two. The half-timbered wool shop has a distinct West Midlands look, and indeed the Hillman Minx number plate was issued in Dudley, certainly Warwickshire. The white car is a Ford Anglia or revamped Popular I think. It reminds me of one my brother had in pale blue. We went to Scotland in it around 1960, and we shared the crossing of the Clyde on the ferry from Gourock to Dunoon with a coffin-shaped box wrapped in sacking that was placed by the front bumper. I got out to look at the attached label, and it said 'To Dunoon: One Passenger'. A hearse stood waiting on the quayside. But all that doesn't really help does it? Sorry.
I am a designer, writer and photographer who spends all his time looking at England, particularly buildings and the countryside. But I have a leaning towards the slightly odd and neglected, the unsung elements that make England such an interesting place to live in. I am the author and photographer of over 25 books, in particular Unmitigated England (Adelphi 2006), More from Unmitigated England (Adelphi 2007), Cross Country (Wiley 2011), The Cigarette Papers (Frances Lincoln 2012), Preposterous Erections (Frances Lincoln 2012) and English Allsorts (Adelphi 2015)
"Open this book with reverence. It is a hymn to England". Clive Aslet
Preposterous Erections
"Enchanting...delightful". The Bookseller "Cheekily named" We Love This Book
The Cigarette Papers
"Unexpectedly pleasing and engrossing...beautifully illustrated". The Bookseller
Cross Country
"Until the happy advent of Peter Ashley's Cross Country it has, ironically, been foreigners who have been best at celebrating Englishness". Christina Hardyment / The Independent
More from Unmitigated England
"Give this book to someone you know- if not everyone you know." Simon Heffer, Country Life. "When it comes to spotting the small but telling details of Englishness, Peter Ashley has no equal." Michael Prodger, Sunday Telegraph