Valerie's Story: Individual stories from WISH YOU WERE HERE!

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Author:
Publisher:
HarperCollins Publishers
Pub. Date:
2014
Language:
English
Description
One of seven touching true stories from Wish You Were Here!, the tale of Butlin's holiday camps. 'When I got to the camp I felt as if I'd suddenly walked into Utopia - it was so colourful, so warm, so friendly. There were lights across the roads, there were banners fluttering in the breeze... There seemed to be laughter coming from every building.' With grey post-WWII skies hanging low over Britain, factories lining the streets and smoke stacks dotting the horizon, there was one way that ordinary families could escape: the ever-cheerful holiday camps of Butlin's. When Billy Butlin founded his holiday camps in 1936, they were bastions of community spirit and havens of luxury. Here, for one week, wives and mothers were freed from the toil and drudgery of housework, children ran free through the grounds, fathers and husbands hung up their work clothes. Ever-helpful redcoats were on hand all hours of the day, dinner halls ready with plentiful food for old and young alike, bars stocked to quench any level of thirst, ballrooms waiting to be flooded with shiny shoes, rustling dresses and peals of laughter. And, as the sun went down on another exhausting, happy day, a chorus line was ready to sing holidaymakers back to their beds. Rich in period detail and highly evocative, Wish You Were Here! follows the lives of seven of the camps' key figures through the highs and lows of the holiday season: from redcoats searching for stardom to young families who returned year after year, to pensioners who rediscovered an inner youth. The laughter and tears, the loves and losses, and the fun and friendships that have lasted a lifetime - it's all here. Funny, moving and heartwarming, they are tales of swimming pools and sing-a-longs, Glamorous Grannies and bicycle rides, and of a community spirit that burned brightly in a much-loved British institution. - From the authors of The Sweethearts, which sold 53,030 copies across all editions (including eshorts). - Nostalgic memoirs are a perennially popular genre, with The Sugar Girls TCMing 47k copies, GI Brides selling over 9k copies to date, Jennifer Worth's books totalling 1.3 million copies, and wartime and postwar memoirs filling the bestseller charts. No other book has focused on the Butlin's holiday camps - which many readers will remember fondly from their own childhoods - giving us a new angle over competitors. - In the successful model of bestsellers The Sugar Girls, GI Brides and The Sweethearts, the paperback will be published alongside 5 digital shorts. - The authors will promote on publication, and Butlin's is fully supporting with cross-promotional activity. Strong regional interest is expected in the areas around the holiday camps.
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ISBN:
9780007557493
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Grouping Information

Grouped Work IDd36ab74e-24fd-32f8-d4c9-4285cb8708d1
Grouping Titlevaleries story individual stories from wish you were here
Grouping Authorneil hanson
Grouping Categorybook
Grouping LanguageEnglish (eng)
Last Grouping Update2023-11-22 22:23:35PM
Last Indexed2024-05-16 23:37:51PM

Solr Fields

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0
accelerated_reader_reading_level
0
author
Hanson, Neil
author2-role
hoopla digital
author_display
Hanson, Neil
display_description
One of seven touching true stories from Wish You Were Here!, the tale of Butlin's holiday camps. 'When I got to the camp I felt as if I'd suddenly walked into Utopia - it was so colourful, so warm, so friendly. There were lights across the roads, there were banners fluttering in the breeze... There seemed to be laughter coming from every building.' With grey post-WWII skies hanging low over Britain, factories lining the streets and smoke stacks dotting the horizon, there was one way that ordinary families could escape: the ever-cheerful holiday camps of Butlin's. When Billy Butlin founded his holiday camps in 1936, they were bastions of community spirit and havens of luxury. Here, for one week, wives and mothers were freed from the toil and drudgery of housework, children ran free through the grounds, fathers and husbands hung up their work clothes. Ever-helpful redcoats were on hand all hours of the day, dinner halls ready with plentiful food for old and young alike, bars stocked to quench any level of thirst, ballrooms waiting to be flooded with shiny shoes, rustling dresses and peals of laughter. And, as the sun went down on another exhausting, happy day, a chorus line was ready to sing holidaymakers back to their beds. Rich in period detail and highly evocative, Wish You Were Here! follows the lives of seven of the camps' key figures through the highs and lows of the holiday season: from redcoats searching for stardom to young families who returned year after year, to pensioners who rediscovered an inner youth. The laughter and tears, the loves and losses, and the fun and friendships that have lasted a lifetime - it's all here. Funny, moving and heartwarming, they are tales of swimming pools and sing-a-longs, Glamorous Grannies and bicycle rides, and of a community spirit that burned brightly in a much-loved British institution. - From the authors of The Sweethearts, which sold 53,030 copies across all editions (including eshorts). - Nostalgic memoirs are a perennially popular genre, with The Sugar Girls TCMing 47k copies, GI Brides selling over 9k copies to date, Jennifer Worth's books totalling 1.3 million copies, and wartime and postwar memoirs filling the bestseller charts. No other book has focused on the Butlin's holiday camps - which many readers will remember fondly from their own childhoods - giving us a new angle over competitors. - In the successful model of bestsellers The Sugar Girls, GI Brides and The Sweethearts, the paperback will be published alongside 5 digital shorts. - The authors will promote on publication, and Butlin's is fully supporting with cross-promotional activity. Strong regional interest is expected in the areas around the holiday camps.
format_category_eh
eBook
format_eh
eBook
id
d36ab74e-24fd-32f8-d4c9-4285cb8708d1
isbn
9780007557493
last_indexed
2024-05-17T05:37:51.085Z
lexile_score
-1
literary_form
Non Fiction
literary_form_full
Non Fiction
local_time_since_added_eh
Year
primary_isbn
9780007557493
publishDate
2014
publisher
HarperCollins Publishers
recordtype
grouped_work
subject_facet
Electronic books
title_display
Valerie's Story : Individual stories from WISH YOU WERE HERE!
title_full
Valerie's Story : Individual stories from WISH YOU WERE HERE! [electronic resource] / Lynn Russell and Neil Hanson
title_short
Valerie's Story
title_sub
Individual stories from WISH YOU WERE HERE!
topic_facet
Electronic books

Solr Details Tables

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record_details

Bib IdFormatFormat CategoryEditionLanguagePublisherPublication DatePhysical DescriptionAbridged
hoopla:MWT15855410eBookeBookEnglishHarperCollins Publishers20141 online resource (30 pages)

scoping_details_eh

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