50 Shades of Tradition

When I was a kid I loved the caption photo books that were everywhere in the 70s – Take Me to Your Leaders, The Official Muldoon Joke Book etc. Then, they were everywhere, with major publishers turning them out every year. One day last summer I was sitting on a beach when I had the blindingly obvious realisation (blindingly obvious, once I’d realised it, that is,) that this concept was as sound now as it ever was and so 50 Shades of Key was born. Because these books died out around 1980, many of the people who produced them are no longer with us but I tracked down a few for my Last Wordcolumn and their experiences will be related in the September issue of North and South magazine. In the meantime, I hope my own effort is seen as, in part at least, an adequate tribute to these great originals.