Ysenda Maxtone Graham

The sadness of Britain’s seaside resorts

Their decline began with the arrival of package holidays in the 1960s – and new schemes for their revival seem already to have backfired

Margate beach, with the Turner Contemporary in the far distance. Opened in 2011, the art gallery promised to regenerate the town, but may have aggravated Margate’s problems. [Alamy] 
issue 06 May 2023
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  • The Seaside: England’s Love Affair

    Madeleine Bunting

    Granta, pp. 400, £20

Now the exhilaration kicks in, the lightness of heart, a joyfulness surging along the warmed blood vessels and tingling extremities: every cell feels as if charged with new life. There has been a ritual, a sacrifice, an offering to the waves of flesh and pain, and in return, there is restoration, life given back.

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