Over 15 million adults in Great Britain have been to Butlins and they know Billy Butlin as the man who revolutionized their holiday habits. The general public revere him as the man who made luxury holidays affordable to the average British family, but do they know the true Billy Butlin? Butlins in its Prime is the second instalment in the life of Rocky Mason, focusing on his 30 year career working for a British holiday institution as well as his own personal tribute to the man, known as "The Holiday Camp King." With over 50 archive pictures, this book is a must for any Butlins Devotee

The fashion show and its spaces are sites of otherness, representing everything from rebellion and excess through to political and social activism. This conceptual and stylistic variety is reflected in the spaces they occupy, whether they are staged in an industrial warehouse, on a city street, or out in the open landscape. Staging Fashion is the first collection of essays about the presentation and staging of fashion in runway shows in the period from the 1960s to the 2010s. It offers a fresh perspective on the many collaborations between artists, architects and interior designers to reinforce their interdisciplinary links. Fashion, architecture and interiors share many elements, including design, history, material culture, aesthetics and trends. The research and ideas underpinning Staging Fashion address how fashion and the spatial fields have collaborated in the creation of the space of the fashion show. The 15 essays are written by fashion, interior, architecture and design scholars focusing on the presentation of fashion within the runway space, from avant-garde practices and collaboration with artists, to the most spectacular and commercial shows of recent years, from Prada to Chanel.

Poverty to Paradise, by Rocky Mason is a story of courage, fear, deprivation and humour. There are times when you will laugh out loud and others when you will weep. It's the definitive autobiography of a man who has been there, done that and still proudly wears the T Shirt. It's an eventful life of tough childhood wartime experiences, a successful amateur boxing career of 69 straight wins in 87 fights only to move from "Gumshield to Greasepaint" and a life in showbiz working for the "Holiday Camp King," Billy Butlin. Drawing on a multitude of sources Rocky offers a compelling account of those six gruelling years 1939 - 45. Food shortages, conscientious objectors, head lice, visits of the nit-nurse, rationing, nightly air raids and his own personal experience of evacuation to an atrocious boys camp. During what was a 30 year association with Butlins, Rocky became a personal friend of almost every showbiz star in the country, many of whom have contributed to this book. .

Provides an enjoyable and nostalgic trip down memory lane for all who know and love Butlin's

Houdini and beyond: a historic magical mystery tour of the great showmen who inspired the likes of David Blaine, Penn & Teller, and Siegfried & Roy. Today, Harry Houdini stands as the most famous illusionist and escape artist in history. But from the late nineteenth century to early twentieth century, magicians and escapologists who inspired—and were inspired by—Houdini packed vaudeville houses and local theaters across the globe. The Great Illusionists reveals the careers, lives, and sometimes shocking on-stage deaths of the greatest showmen to ever wow the world. In addition to the astounding accomplishments of Houdini, marvel at the feats of Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin, the “Father of Modern Conjuring”; the Davenport Brothers, music hall mediums and devotees of the Spiritualist movement; the “Dean of American Magicians” Harry Kellar; master illusionists, the Great Raymond, David Devant, the Great Lafayette, and Chung Ling Soo; the novelty performances of The Human Fly and Datas, “The Living Encyclopedia”; and many more. From vanishing acts and public seances to harrowing bullet-tricks and psychic wizardry, The Great Illusionists brings to life a unique history of entertainment.

Our True Intent Is All For Your Delight features the vintage color photographs of the John Hinde postcard company, originally made in the 1970s for sale as postcards and published here in book form for the first time. Butlin's was a network of Holiday Camps that revolutionized the British holiday in the years following World War II and, by the 1970s, was attracting a million people each year. The John Hinde team of photographers documented Butlin's glamorous and kitsch bars and ballrooms with technical brilliance and with the participation of large casts of holidaymakers. Precursors to the art photography of Andreas Gursky and Jeff Wall, these images are simultaneously heart-warming and hilarious, with dazzling design and color. They are a unique social-historical record of Britain in the early 1970s, described by Martin Parr in his introduction as "some of the strongest images of Britain of the period." Martin Parr is a leading figure in British and European photography and a jackdaw collector of images and -postcards. Born in Epsom, Surrey, in 1952, he spent two summer breaks from college working as a "walkie" photographer at Butlin's, snapping holidaymakers for their family albums. His encounter at Butlin's with John Hinde's postcards helped determine his own style, and he came to fame in 1986 with color-saturated scenes of working-class British holidaymakers, The Last Resort. Author of over 30 photography books, his retrospective was shown at the Barbican Art Gallery, London, in 2002. He is a member of Magnum Photos, and his work has been collected by museums throughout the world, including the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the Philadelphia Museum and the Museums of Modern Art in New York and San Francisco.

An autobiography from a British call-session guitarist who worked in every major recording and television studio in London during the 1950s, '60s, and '70s.