Ever since Alan Ayckbourn (b.1939) took a temporary job in 1957 at the Stephen Joseph Theatre when it was on the first floor of the public library - and stayed until 2009 as artistic director - Scarborough has been an important destination for theatre-goers. The theatre in the round was established in 1955 and has been in this former Odeon cinema building (1936) since 1966. A marvellous production of Michael Frayn's Noises Off is on now until 6th September. 

This week's subject on the Post is Scarborough, the seaside town in North Yorkshire. In his new book To the Sea by Train: The Golden Age of Railway Travel, Andrew Martin recalls the days when day-trippers and holidaymakers arrived in their thousands by excursion trains until the advent of cheap flights and package holidays caused numbers to dwindle, but it's still possible to arrive from York at the grand station and enjoy this lively place with plenty to offer. (The LNER promoted its seaside destinations with imaginatively glamorous posters such as this from 1936 which features the South Bay Pool by Edmund Oakdale.)

This lovely composition suggests the ideal reading outfit: pale blue linen dress, scarlet highlights, and a wide-brimmed straw hat - plus a suitably matching folding chair. The subject is sculptor Eleanor Christie-Chatterley (b.1929) in The artist's wife reading, August 1953 (private collection) by Fyffe Christie (1918-79).

One wonders if the comfortable sun lounger on a New York rooftop has been put there just so that a moment's reading can be snatched in the midst of domestic chores such as hanging out the washing. This is Chimneys (1944) by the influential Hungarian photographer André Kertész (1894-1985) who emigrated to New York in 1936. It is a part of his lifelong preoccupation with readers and reading; he created a large collection of images of readers on NYC rooftops, tiny balconies, and fire escapes.

Like so many domestic themes and details in Carl Larsson's work, readers and their seats appear frequently - and we never tire of of looking at them. This is the luminous Holiday Reading (1916, private collection) which shows Carl Larsson’s wife Karin and Esbjörn, their youngest son, sitting in a corner of the garden of the house, Lilla Hyttnäs at Sundborn, with a chestnut tree providing shade. The house and garden can be visited, and it's still  possible to sit outside with a book. 

Infuriating though they may be to put up, deckchairs are a fixture of beaches,  parks, and gardens. Members of the Bloomsbury Group often assembled on deckchairs at their various houses including Charleston and Ham Spray House. This photograph (c1926-27) was taken by Frances Partridge at the latter and shows Carrington, Saxon Sydney-Turner, Ralph Partridge, and Lytton Strachey who was frequently photographed sitting in a deckchair with his long body folded to the same angles.

As readers of the Persephone Letter know some of us have just finished watching all three series of the 2008 (onwards) Lark Rise to Candleford and are now bereft. But two suggestions in emails yesterday from readers of the Post: 'I agree Heimat is one of the best ever. I still have several episodes recorded off BBC2 on video. It is still available in German on the Internet Archive, an amazing source of old programmes.' Also: 'I write to say I hope you will include the Tenko set. It was a wonderful weekly dose of, for the most part, women’s courage and patience in such daunting circumstances.' Yes, we would have liked to include Tenko. And A French Village (much loved by 'our' author Judith Viorst, although we found it far too harrowing to watch). The other one we would have liked to include is Foyle's War. We are off for a rewatch.