Our True Intent Is All For Your Delight: The John Hinde ... (ISBN 0954281306)

Love this Book:
Postcard renderings of the sixties as its kitschiest and most fabulous, completely without any hint of irony to spoil the mood. The book could have served as a style reference book for the set design of Edward Scissorhands. I bought it as a style reference for my work. I used to collect old Life magazines, catalogues, books whatever but this is everything you'd like to imitate from the sixties design-wise all in one. And the reproductions are in perfect brilliant technicolor and the book is beautifully done.

Folks having fun.:
John Hinde's wonderful photos capture a peculiarly British phenomenon, the Butlin's vacation camp. As photographer Martin Parr says in his intro...Billy Butlin had the great idea of providing a holiday park for the working class, where they could have a good time despite the English weather. The price included everything, accommodation, food and entertainment so the camps where very popular with families, ma and pa could do what they wanted knowing that the kids, not being able to stray from the enclosed site, could play all day in safety. The fifty-five large, pin-sharp photos in this book capture exactly the feel and ambience of the various Butlin camps around the country. They all show groups of people, indoors and out, eating, dancing (ballroom dancing was always a big draw for pensioners) swimming, relaxing or whatever. Hinde used real campers for these photos and in nearly every one, if you look closely, you can always spot one person who is looking at the camera, I bet they were told to ignore the camera and all the lights and look as if they were having a good time. As these pictures show the British relaxing on vacation there are naturally plenty of men wearing a jacket, collar and tie, on sunny days too! I think this is a lovely book that captures, with documentary style photos, the seventies look of a unique English institution. ***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

--Unintentionally Hilarious?--:
I am a big fan of Bruce McCall and his work (Zany Afternoons,New Yorker, early National Lampoon). These photos look like his art come to life. Funny, oddly touching, "real life" photos. A joy!

Another Time and Place:
Our True Intent Is All for Your Delight will transform you for a moment and take you to another time and place. The photographs are fantastic, and it is interesting to find at least one person in a crowd looking in the camera in many shots. Indeed, you find yourself wondering about the lives of the people in the pictures and where they are now. The write ups are nicely done and help put things in better perspective for people not familiar with Butlin's. Four people saw my copy and asked to borrow it since I bought it last week. I imagine that they will find themselves planning their vacations to Butlin's as I wish I could.