London: Thames and Hudson 1974, 1974. First edition. 264x234mm. pp. 14, 120 black and white photographs. Introduction by Ainslie Ellis. Original tan cloth, spine lettered in gilt with publisher's device to upper cover. Light rubbing to head and foot of spine. Original black and white photo illustrated dust-jacket, text printed in black. Slight toning to spine but otherwise a near fine dust jacket. Internally excellent and overall a very good copy of a seminal work of social commentary. A Day Off was published posthumously in 1972. It is a part-finished study dealing with that favourite subject of the English - social class. Tony Ray-Jones uses images of the English at play - from beauty contests in Margate to the opera at Glyndebourne - to show how we divide along class lines. "I want my pictures to bite like the images in Buñuel's films which disturb you while making you think. I want them to have poignancy and sharpness but with humour on top...My aim is to communicate something of the spirit and the mentality of the English, their habits and their way of life, the ironies that exist in the way they do things, partly through tradition and partly through the nature of their environment and mentality".

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Bookseller: Voewood Rare Books (GB)
Bookseller's Inventory #: 4081
Title: A Day Off. An English Journal
Author: RAY-JONES, Tony
Book Condition: Used
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: London: Thames and Hudson 1974
Date Published: 1974

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Voewood Rare Books

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Voewood Rare Books

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Holt, Norfolk

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About Voewood Rare Books

Simon Finch has been a Rare Book Dealer since 1980. He has had shops in Notting Hill Gate, Mayfair and Holt, Norfolk. His firm has handled a wide variety of material from the First Folio of Shakespeare to the wilder shores of the counterculture and everything in between. In 1998, Simon bought Voewood, one of the finest Arts and Crafts and houses and brought it back to life with an eight-year programme of renovation and restoration. Voewood Rare Books, which operates from Voewood, is the continuation for Simon of a long career in the book trade. It also represents an important link with the House. Voewood is always beautiful, surprising, mysterious and perhaps a little disorientating and we aim to bring something of this spirit to the bookshop. Whilst our focus in on the visual arts, literature and the counter-culture, we deal also in a broad range of antiquarian and modern rare books across all subject areas. Our collection can be found here at Biblio and on our website. We are open by appointment and can always be contacted by email.

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Glossary

Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:

Gilt: The decorative application of gold or gold coloring to a portion of a book on the spine, edges of the text block, or an inlay in...
Fine: A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
First Edition: In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
Spine: The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
Device: Especially for older books, a printer's device refers to an identifying mark, also sometimes called a printer's mark, on the...
Rubbing: Abrasion or wear to the surface. Usually used in reference to a book's boards or dust-jacket.
Jacket: Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
Cloth: "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...