Although RRB Photobooks had already published the landmark trilogy of John Myers's work (Middle England, The World is Not Beautiful and The End of Industry), more photographs have continued to come to light from his archive; Life As It Is brings these together for the first time, with the majority published here originally. Martin Parr writes in the foreword that the volume confirms Myers's role as one of the key portraitists of post-war Britain. This narrative approach to Myers's collection is the first of its kind: the publication weaves together the distinct customs of a peaceful middle England with the uncanny sights that, in Myers's own phrase, 'don't conform to how the world should look.' Frames throughout the book invite the reader to step into nostalgic environments; passing through each threshold, the reader is met by people characterised by their occupations—butchers, sales assistants, dinner ladies—and by the everyday fabric of houses, buses, removal vans, hairdressers, washing drying, roofs being replaced, tyres, ice cream for sale. Myers's habitat is Stourbridge in the Midlands, and the familiarity of these images travels easily across generations of suburban dwellers.