Along beach in daylight, 1982

This is humorous and bleak at the same time. It was taken in Britain in the 1980s. Thatcher was prime minister, the country was in a severe economic downturn. There’s a tired sadness about this image. That grey sand, that sad donkey, the wind shelters, the dog lifting its leg – and then that man, sitting there in long pants, resolutely reading his paper, just not having a bar of it. There is a sense of nostalgia, but it’s such a great picture of Britain at the time. It’s pretty grim.

Photograph: Chris Steele-Perkins