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Ben Hammersley is a British journalist, broadcaster, and photographer, currently based between Florence, Italy, and London, England. Here is his biography on wikipedia.

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Things that have changed since I was last living in the UK

Nine zones on the tube? Tragic life stories is a genre now? What have you people been doing? I was only away for five years.

Hammersley22008-02-0416-45-26 Hammersley12008-01-2007-45-15-1

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  1. Ah, that’s just the assimilation of the old Metroland outer burbs — Rickmansworth, Chalfont, Amersham, formerly zones A-D. And if you live in Rickmansworth, ‘tragic life stories’ are just your thing.

  2. Yes, “Tragic Life Stories” is a genre in itself now - and some of the sections are enormous, as I snapped on this photo of the WH Smiths near my work: http://www.flickr.com/photos/qwghlm/1797780239/ What I find especially interesting is the uniformity of the cover design, like there’s a production line of them or something.

  3. Yes, thought exactly the same when I was back in the UK in August. The section I saw was called ‘Painful Lives’.

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