The Saturday Book, edited by John Hadfield

This is issue #23 of The Saturday Book, which was a major cultural thing back in the 1940s to 1960s. This edition was published in 1963 by Hutchinson and Company, 15.5 x 24 cm hardcover with intact jacket and almost 300 pages, this is a wealth of photographs, drawings, cartoons and news from the era. “Readers should not assume, however, that in matters of taste and selection, the editorial aim of The Saturday Book is merely to be, in the last year’s jargon, ‘with it’. We are, indeed, becoming a little impatient with ‘with-itry’. Cultural and social communications are now so swift that one fashion follows another at motorway pace. The current vogue for satirical humour on television, in canaret, and in the Press accelerates the process still more. AN idea, a style, a political or aesthetic point of view, is no sooner established in the public mind than it is rent with ridicule. And everyone rushes to adopt the new vogue that replaces it.” A fascinating glimpse into a bygone era.