SUNDAY BEST

What if every day was like Sunday Closed shops and roast dinners Bulky newspapers and the hum of lawnmowers Strolls to nowhere in particular and visiting snoozing grandparents Television theme tunes cueing bath time and a sudden dread of the looming week ahead Through an assortment of rituals and activities Sundays came to be the unique day in our week whether tedious pleasant or somewhere in between But how did they change over time Has anything interesting ever happened on a Sunday Have we forgotten how to do Sunday And in our rushed modern lives should we now try to recapture that distinctive unhurried Sunday feel Offering answers to those questions and more through a mix of travelogue and social history A Month of Sundays entertainingly charts the story of what author Daniel Gray argues is the People s Day Told through Sundays whiled away in places from the Hebrides to Hyde Park via Sunderland Scarborough Liverpool and beyond Gray s latest book is a charming journey in time and place A Month of Sundays offers nostalgia people s history and affectionate absorbing writing a book drenched in the scent of gravy and summoning the faint sound of church bells