The longest way round by Chris Dorley-Brown
A visual investigation of the author’s family history, The Longest Way Round is a construct of historical images woven together with new photographs. Uncovering a treasure trove of archive material not intended for the family album, Dorley-Brown’s book presents a multi-layered alternative narrative for the course of events that shaped the late 20th century.
Along with historical images from the European theatre of war, The Longest Way Round features a series of wartime letters that reveal what life was like on the homefront in Britain for Peter’s family while he was missing in action, later to be found as a POW. Dorley-Brown’s contemporary images retrace the postwar journey of his parents, and resonate the effect of his family history on his own outlook decades later. The resulting book highlights wartime hardship, a love story in the aftermath, the following modernist reconstruction and, finally, a sense of closure for the author. An afterword by the author is included.“
