Postcard From The Past - Softcover

‘Resurrecting these postcards, relics of forgotten times and forgotten holidays, was the simplest and most brilliant idea. Tom Jackson combines the images with just a few of the words scribbled on the back, and his eye for the choice sentence, the perfect phrase, is miraculous. Thanks to his assiduous, obsessive work as collector and curator, each one of these postcards becomes a poem, a short story, an elegy for lost England, a work of art’ Jonathan Coe

‘What a funny, clever, poignant idea. Postcard From The Past contains not just 150 very short stories, each one of which bears comparison with the work of Alan Bennett, Stevie Smith and Marcel Proust, but also lovely, picturesque views of coves, chines, promenades, escarpments and the Museum and Art Gallery, Doncaster. You will wish you were there’ Andy Miller, author of The Year of Reading Dangerously

‘A deadpan miscellany of wan nostalgia, profound melancholy, stoic humour and inexplicable dread. The necessary survival text for post-Brexit Britain’ Andrew Male

'I loved this book so very much. Sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking, this is a beautiful collection of tiny windows into the stories of other people's lives’ Joanna Cannon, author of The Trouble with Goats and Sheep

‘Brilliant and hilarious’ Jeremy Dyson, The League of Gentlemen

‘The most addictively British Twitter feed ever has become a book. I may never leave the house again’ Viv Groskop

‘Each card is like an unfinished one act play. I find myself filling in the blanks’ Adrian Edmondson

‘The bleak yet beautiful poetry of people at their leisure is a joy to read’ Phill Jupitus

‘A gorgeous pre-Twitter look at life through a holiday lens’ Jenny Éclair

‘Are there awards for Most Hilarious Yet Touching Yet Profound Bathroom/Coffee Table/Gift Book of the Year? If so, this book wins HANDS DOWN’ Amanda Palmer

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY MARK HADDON

In Postcard From The Past, Tom Jackson has gathered a collection of the funniest, weirdest and most moving real messages from the backs of old postcards.

‘Sublimely funny’ Jason Hazeley, author of the Ladybird Books for Grown Ups

‘My favourite Twitter account is now my favourite book. Irresistible!’ Jill Mansell

‘This book is an absolute treat’ Holly Walsh

‘Transfixing, beguiling, warmly haunting. These are the ghosts of a childhood’ Robin Ince

‘A hilarious and occasionally disturbing look at how the British remain resolutely small-minded wherever they go’ Charlie Higson

‘Six by four inch portions of pure heaven’ Rachel Johnson

‘Somehow both poignant and deeply creepy’ Samira Ahmed

‘One of Twitter’s most nourishing concepts – each one arriving like a bonsai Alan Bennett play’ Danny Baker

‘Beautiful. Inspiring. Educational. Hilarious’ Emma Freud

‘One of the saddest and funniest picture books you're ever likely to read’ Owen Hatherley, author of The Ministry of Nostalgia

‘Hilarious, haunting, silly, poetic and profound’ Danny Wallace

‘A book of rare and genuine beauty’ James O’Brien, LBC