Postcard from the future: 'Why I'm heading to the Isle of Wight after lockdown'

Junk shops have boxes of postcards, many from this island – a traditional holiday favourite. The author of Postcard from the Past is planning a pilgrimage

One reason I spend so much time wading through boxes of old postcards in junk shops is to snoop on holidays I can never take. On one side are pictured places that are no longer quite there, reproduced in colours that nature doesn’t recognise; on the other are semi-legible messages from holidaymakers 50 or 60 years ago.

“They say it was hot last week. Just our luck.”