Thanet Revisited

Childhood summers in the 1960’s were spent on the North Kent coast around Whitstable and Herne Bay fishing, playing with my summer friends in and on the sea and on the pebble beaches. I still have fond recollections of those days (I don’t remember it ever raining). Out of curiosity, I decided to re-visit some of these once familiar places, for the first time since my early teens, to see if they were still recognisable, to make photographs and to possibly rekindle my early memories. During the last 50 years, the coastline has undergone major changes. It is now fashionable to live ‘by the sea’, seaside towns have become increasingly gentrified, major sea defences have formalised the once ragged shoreline and offshore wind farms punctuate the horizon, but despite this, the coastline still has an easy familiarity for me, echoing memories of big skies, shabby beach huts, noisy amusement arcades, and days spent waiting for an elusive fish to bite. This book explores how these once familiar places and objects have adapted to current social and economic trends, whilst retaining their unique and very British, character.