Scrapbook For The Twenties

Scrapbook For The Twenties (1959) by Leslie Baily
Muller • ISBN: none (because of course it doesn’t have one)
Condition: Good (in the way that only a book older than your parents can be)

Step right up for a guided tour of the Roaring Twenties, as seen from the vantage point of 1959 and now arriving in your hands via a slightly battered parcel from Crappy Old Books. This is nostalgia twice removed: first from the 1920s to the 1950s, and now from the 1950s to you, hunched over a screen in the 2020s wondering where it all went wrong.

Scrapbook For The Twenties is exactly what it says on the tin: a riot of clippings, memories, headlines, photos and curiosities from the decade that gave us flappers, jazz, strange haircuts and people saying “Gosh, these economic conditions seem unsustainably buoyant, but what could possibly go wrong?” Leslie Baily does his level best to cram an entire era between two covers, and somehow succeeds without needing a single QR code, infographic or “content strategy”.

Inside you can expect a glorious jumble of:

• Vintage anecdotes and name-drops from a time when people actually wore evening dress unironically.

• Period photos and snippets that make you say “Were we ever that optimistic?” (No, but our grandparents were.)

• The sort of cultural references that will make you feel wildly clever if you get even half of them.

This particular copy is graded Good, which in Crappy Old Books language means:

• It has survived the Cold War, decimalisation, the rise and fall of Ceefax, the invention of the internet, and several housing booms without disintegrating.

• The pages are all present and perfectly readable, though they may show the gentle sun-tan lines of a life well lived (age toning, maybe a bit of foxing if you’re lucky).

• The cover may have minor scuffs, nicks or creases, because time and human hands are cruel, but nothing that would embarrass it on a bus.

• It is structurally sound enough not to explode into loose leaves the first time you open it. We save that experience for Poor copies.

There is no ISBN, because when this was printed the idea of barcoding books for computerised stock control would have sounded like something out of a particularly far-fetched H.G. Wells story. Instead, you get old-fashioned things like type, paper and content.

Why might you want this?

• You’re writing, drawing or daydreaming about the 1920s and want the flavour of how the 1950s remembered them.

• You enjoy books that feel like rummaging through someone else’s attic, but without the dust and the awkward family history.

• You simply like the idea of owning a “scrapbook” that doesn’t require an app, a sync, or an update.

In summary: this is a slightly time-warped love letter to the 1920s, preserved in solid mid-century hardback form, now passing through the tenderly indifferent hands of Crappy Old Books on its way to you. It’s not pristine, it’s not modern, it’s not optimised for anything – but it is the real thing, and it’ll look excellent on a shelf next to all those newer books that secretly wish they’d seen half as much life.

Keep browsing: See more History books Other books by Leslie Baily