The humble pair of glasses might just be one the world’s greatest inventions, allowing millions to see a world that might otherwise appear a blur. And yet how much do many of us even really think about these things perched on the ends of our noses?
Travis Elborough’s eye opening new book, Through the Looking Glasses, traces the fascinating true story of spectacles: from their inception as primitive visual aids to monkish scribes right through to today’s designer eyewear and the augmented reality of Google Glass. Join him as he relates in words and pictures encounters with ingenious medieval Italian glassmakers, myopic Renaissance rulers and spectacle-makers, as well as the silent movie star Harold Lloyd, the rock n roller Buddy Holly and the full-screen figure of Marilyn Monroe. Along, of course, with the legendary Sussex character Horace Albert Duke.
It’s all a question of vision and the need for humanity to see clearly, as Travis explores where the impulse to improve our eyesight has led us and where it might take us in the future.
‘This is a thorough, entertaining and thoroughly entertaining history of life through a lens’ ― David Quantick
‘Fascinating’ — Rachel Cooke ― Observer
Acclaimed by the Guardian as ‘one of the country’s finest pop culture historians’, Travis Elborough is a Shoreham-born author, broadcaster and cultural commentator. Elborough’s books include Wish You Were Here: England on Sea, The Long-Player Goodbye, a hymn to vinyl records that inspired the BBC4 documentary When Albums Ruled the World, in which he also appeared, and A Walk in the Park, a loving exploration of public parks and green space. He has also collaborated on the popular and award-winning series of ‘Unexpected’ Atlases with the cartographers Alan Horsfield and Martin Brown.