Through The Looking Glasses

Elegantly framed and multi-focal, this is a gloriously panoptical survey… As a history of restored sight it is instructive, and as a narrative of facial furniture it is fascinating * Simon Garfield *This is a thorough, entertaining and thoroughly entertaining history of life through a lens * David Quantick *It will make you look at specs with fresh eyes * New Statesman *A fascinating journey through the history of eye glasses… a rich and detailed account of technology, fashion, medicine and society… encyclopaedic historical and cultural range, intriguing insights and jocular prose * Hackney Citizen *Fascinating… [An] exuberant history of spectacles and those who wear them – Victoria Segal * Sunday Times *Elborough is an elegant writer who moves easily between high art, tricky optics and celebrity culture… This is a lively, engaging, admirably wide-ranging history of everything you could possibly want to know about glasses – Laura Freeman * The Times *[A] brilliantly enjoyable survey… Elborough brings his own experience as a lifelong myope beautifully to bear on his subject – Kathryn Hughes * Guardian *Fascinating – Rachel Cooke * Observer *Witty, enjoyable and illuminating… the sort of book that makes you wonder why nobody has ever written it before… Elborough is an erudite cultural historian – Andrew Lynch * Business Post *[An] exhaustive, illuminating celebration of eyewear… Elborough proves to be an endlessly entertaining and informative guide * Islington Tribune *

Acclaimed by the Guardian as ‘one of the country’s finest pop culture historians’, Travis Elborough has been a freelance writer, author, broadcaster and cultural commentator for nearly two decades. Elborough’s books include Wish You Were Here: England on Sea, The Long-Player Goodbye, a hymn to vinyl records that inspired the BBC4 documentary When Albums Ruled the World, in which he also appeared, and A Walk in the Park, a loving exploration of public parks and green space. Elborough regularly appears on Radio 4 and recently wrote and presented the five-part series, The Rise and Fall of the Antique, and is a frequent contributor to the Guardian and Observer, among other newspapers and magazines.