ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to tell the small story' of the travels and activities of an ordinary' twentieth-century English family by presenting an analysis of one man's holiday books', written over a period of 60 years between 1937 and 1996. The holiday books' now constitute a unique and substantial archive of twentieth-century English family tourism practice. The chapter attempts a preliminary analysis of the archive of holiday books' left by the authour's father, Jack Tivers, dating from the years 1937 to 1996. The full process of the anticipation of holidays, the act of travel, and the narration of holiday stories on return are all tied into an imagination and performance which enables tourists to think of themselves as particular sorts of person. One could argue, therefore, that twentieth-century mass tourism developments had little influence on his holiday behaviour.
