If you happen to be so inclined, this month’s (August) Homes and Antiques magazine is worth a look. Its a vintage special, in celebration of the 50-year anniversary of the Festival of Britain, which is marked at the end of this month by a Vintage festival at the Southbank centre in London. These 50s living rooms are currently on display in the Royal Festival Hall.

This month’s mag is a winner for all things kitsch and retro, including fabulous and 50s-inspired homes, an exhaustive list of the 50 best vintage shops across the UK, an interesting feature on 1950s (surprise surprise!) hand bags, and lots of other tit-bits and knowledge.

I have subscribed to a few ‘interiors/lifestyle’ magazines over the years, and i must say as a recent subscriber to H&A i’m pretty impressed with this one. They seem to achieve a good mix of covetable homes, events, designers and artists, and informative content. Each month features a product traced through the years, charting key design developments, last month featuring a particular salvage-sister favourite – chairs. Not being particularly designer-savvy, i have recently felt marginally more informed on key trendsetters (Ercol, Lucienne Day, Arne Jacobsen….). My only complaint would be its south of the border focus, for example only one Scottish vintage shop is featured in the list of 50, though certainly worthy of merit (Herman Brown, West Port, Edinburgh.)

I leave you with a few classic h&a ‘mid-century’ home pics to whet your appetite.