Dr Harriet Atkinson launches new publication based on Design Archives' research.
15 Aug 2013
This week marks the publication of The Festival of Britain: A Land and Its People, the new book by Honorary Faculty of Arts Fellow Harriet Atkinson. In her preparation for the book Harriet used papers, sketches and photographs from the Design Archives, in particular the Council of Industrial Design, FHK Henrion, James Gardner and Willy de Mayo collections. It is based on AHRC-funded doctoral research undertaken at the Royal College of Art. The book has already received positive reviews. Terence Conran has said: ‘This book does a wonderful job of describing what went on behind the scenes and why the exhibitions were such a great success… every politician of every party, every architect and designer and every creative person should read this excellent and intensely researched book from cover to cover’, David Matless, author of Landscape and Englishness, has said the book ‘provides an excellent account of a key event…richly illustrated from original sources, it is an insightful study of the geographies of British identity…’ while Christopher Frayling described it as ‘original, well researched, judiciously illustrated and very revealing’.
The Festival of Britain: A Land and Its People can be bought at www.ibtauris.com or from Waterstones, Blackwells and other bookshops.
Image shows South Bank Exhibition, Festival of Britain 1951. Scenes from the cycle of the country year in the Country Pavilion. Original reference: GB-1837-DES-DCA-30-1-FOB-CO-7.
