During the late 1930s in Bolton a disparate bunch of writers, artists and sociologists carried out an in depth study of the everyday lives of people in the town.

David Hall’s new book tells the story of their mass observation project Worktown – Bolton Museum holds the visual archive. One of the things that first drew Hall to the project was Humphrey Spender’s photographs – Hall describes Spender’s misgivings about his involvement in Worktown, especially having to take photographs of Boltonians in secret.

How would you feel photographing people from underneath your coat?

It is impressive how Hall has pulled together such a huge amount of information and
presented it as such a compelling narrative. He does a very good job of describing the larger-than-life founders of the project, and it is these characters that help give the book the feeling of a novel.

Through the book, the reader gains a closer, more real connection to these people who recorded such ordinary things, but left a legacy of something quite extraordinary.

Sam Elliott is the museum development manager at Bolton Library and Museum Service