Today, author Lynne Shelby is sharing her choice of five photos with us, and they’re quite fascinating! So, without further ado, I’ll hand over to Lynne.  

 

 

 

 

Even before digital cameras and i-Phones made photography so accessible, my family, particularly my parents, took photos all the time. Holidays, weddings, birthday parties and other family gatherings were all recorded for posterity over the decades on Box Brownie, Kodak Instamatic and Polaroid cameras. Choosing just five special photos out of the many I have in albums and boxes wasn’t easy – and that’s before I got to all the photos on social media!

This family photo is one of the oldest I have, and was taken in 1892. It is of my grandmother as a baby, with her mother and father, my great-grandparents, and the small boys dressed in velvet and lace are her two brothers. I only knew my grandmother as an old lady with white hair, and her brothers as two extremely ancient gentlemen, but as a child I loved to hear the stories about their Victorian childhood – apparently those angelic-looking boys used to get up to all sorts of mischief. The photo is printed on stiff card with the name of the photographer, and I can imagine that having it taken was quite an occasion.

 

Fast forward sixty years, and this much less formal photo is of my parents taken in the early 1950s, posing with one of their first cars. I like this photo especially because they are obviously having a great day out. I also find it fascinating to see the change of style in photography – and in fashion!

 

By the 1970s my family albums are full of action shots. This photo is of me when I was twelve or thirteen riding a horse named Feste. As a child and teenager, I was a keen rider – I had a holiday job as a stable girl – and the picture brings back many happy memories of rides along the beach, over the South Downs and of going over jumps in the paddock.

 

This photo is of me and my husband in 1980, a year after we were married, and was taken in front of the Great Pyramid in Egypt. It was the first time we’d travelled beyond Europe, and we had the most amazing time exploring Cairo and the surrounding area. The trip gave us a taste for travel, and over the years, we’ve gone on to visit many different cities and countries.

 

This photo was taken a on a trip to Alaska five years’ ago. With its waterfalls, glaciers and mountains, Alaska can truly be described as an awesome place, unlike anywhere else we’ve visited. We hiked along forest trails, met mushers and their teams of huskies, saw whales and eagles – and took many photos. Looking at this photo brings it all back – and makes me want to visit this unspoilt wilderness again.

I’ve had a great time looking through my family photos, from the posed studio portraits of the nineteenth century to recent snapshots on Facebook, seeing so many pictures that bring back special memories, and choosing my favourites – it was certainly very hard to pick out only five! Thank you, Sharon, for inviting me to share them.

It’s been my absolute pleasure, Lynne. I’ve loved looking through them. Thank you so much for sharing them with us. 

Lynne Shelby writes women’s contemporary fiction. Her debut novel, French Kissing, is published by Accent Press, and her next novel is due out in 2018. She is an avid reader, and when she’s not writing or reading, she can usually be found at the theatre or travelling. She lives in North London with her husband, and has three adult children who live nearby.

You can buy French Kissing here.

To find out more about Lynne, follow her on Facebook,  find her on Twitter as @LynneB1, or check out her website.