Life in Preston has always had a dash of colour about it. Preston’s Colourful Past will take you on a journey from its early Victorian days through the Edwardian period and beyond to the twentieth century, a pictorial story of a cotton town that developed into a university city. Using advances in technology, local author Keith Johnson takes us through this story in full colour with images that have been carefully restored. The streets our ancestors lived in weren’t always drab and grey, as typically seen in older images, but instead they were packed with colour and life – freshly painted front doors, flowers in full bloom, bunting hanging along the street lamps. Here we can appreciate the vibrant, bustling lives the townsfolk led, as they travelled through Preston, enjoyed sporting and leisure days, and cheered along during parades and processions, including at the famed Preston Guild. The text that accompanies the full-colour photographs will hopefully prove that Preston has indeed had a colourful past, and one with colourful characters in abundance.