John K. Walton is Professor of Social History at the University of Central Lancashire, and founding president of the International Commission for the History of Travel and Tourism. He has published widely on British, Spanish and comparative history, with a special interest in the history of seaside resorts, tourism and regional identities. His books include The English Seaside Resort: A Social History, 1750-1914 (Leicester, 1983), Blackpool (Edinburgh, 1998); The British Seaside: holidays and Resorts in the Twentieth Century (Manchester, 2000); and (with Professor Gary Cross) The Playful Crowd (New York, forthcoming 2005).