The title of this book is '100 years of Weather,' but it would be more accurate to describe it as an historical account of peoples interaction with extremes of weather in high quality, fascinating photographs. This visual record of Britains favourite topic of conversation: the twists and turns of the weather, contains around 300 photographs from PA Photos huge archives, spanning the whole of the 20th Century. These incredible photographs have been hand-picked by PA Photos own archivists, and most of the images have lain unseen since they were used as news pictures when first taken. Stunning photos of celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, Norman Wisdom, Gazza, or Neville Chamberlain are mixed in with photos of ordinary people coping with the weather conditions. Each image has been scanned especially for this book, many from glass plates, ensuring the best possible quality of reproduction. As an island, Britain enjoys volatile weather systems and accordingly its people have long been obsessed with the subject. Here we see why: extremes such as drought, hurricanes and snowstorms, certainly, but also the astonishing variety of rain that is to be experienced in such a small country. And throughout the century, the British people open their umbrellas, put on their Wellingtons and go about their lives talking about the weather. 300 pages PA Photos is the photographic agency of the PA Group, the UK s national press agency best known as The Press Association. Established in the 19th Century, the PA has been capturing and archiving news photography for 140 years. Along the way, PA Photos has incorporated other great British photo libraries, such as Barratts and Sport & General, into its archives, resulting in an extraordinary library of over 15 million images recording British life over more than a century. Many of these pictures have not been seen since the time that they were first taken: to modern eyes the archives of PA Photos yield a unique insight into Britain s recent past. Thanks to the science of photography we can view the 20th century more accurately than any that came before, but it is thanks to news photography, and in particular the great news agency that is the Press Association, that we are able now to eyewitness the events that made up life in Britain, not so long ago.