Sunday Best
An evocative celebration of the seventh day in all its rich variety
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, Sunday Best 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, The Peak District and beyond – Gray’s latest book is a charming journey in time and place. Sunday Best 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.
Daniel Gray is a writer, broadcaster and magazine editor from York. He has published a host of critically acclaimed books on football and social history, edits Nutmeg magazine and presents the When Saturday Comes podcast. Daniel has presented history programmes on television and written for the BBC. The Silence of the Stands was shortlisted for Football Book of the Year at the Sunday Times Sports Book Awards 2023 and Food of the Cods was shortlisted for Debut Food Book of the Year at the Fortnum and Mason Food and Drink Awards 2024 and was a Guild of Food Writers 2024 Finalist, Food Book of the Year. @d_gray_writer