Sunday Best: Travels through the day of rest

Travels through the day of rest

By: Daniel Gray

Narrated by: George Reid

What if every day was like Sunday?

Closed shops and roast dinners. Bulky newspapers and the hum of lawnmowers. Strolls to nowhere in particular and visiting snoozing grandparents. Television theme tunes cueing bath time and a sudden dread of the looming week ahead…

Through an assortment of rituals and activities, Sundays came to be the unique day in our week – whether tedious, pleasant or somewhere in-between. But how did they change over time? Has anything interesting ever happened on a Sunday? Have we forgotten how to do Sunday? And, in our rushed modern lives, should we now try to recapture that distinctive, unhurried Sunday feel?

Offering answers to those questions and more through a mix of travelogue and social history, Sunday Best entertainingly charts the story of what author Daniel Gray argues is the People’s Day. Told through Sundays whiled away in places from the Hebrides to Hyde Park – via Sunderland, Scarborough, The Peak District and beyond – Gray’s latest book is a charming journey in time and place. Sunday Best offers nostalgia, people’s history and affectionate, absorbing writing – a book drenched in the scent of gravy and summoning the faint sound of church bells.

©2025 Daniel Gray (P)2025 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic reviews

'An appropriately leisurely but learned exploration of the day of rest in all its quiet glories: engaging, digressive and full of things I didn't know.' Stuart Maconie

'Daniel Gray is such a generous writer. He takes pleasure in the people and places he encounters and then shares it in charming prose. This book is his most delightful yet.' Peter Ross

‘Daniel Gray’s glorious sentences light up Sunday’s stained-glass window so that it shines like a lighthouse across the rest of the week. Here are all the creative contours of the so-called Day of Rest.’ Ian McMillan

'A very clever idea (which I rather wish had occurred to me) followed through with considerable panache.' Tom Fort

'As light-hearted social history, it slips down as easily as the first pint of a Sunday lunchtime, and it is packed with pub quiz winning nuggets of information' Times Literary Supplement

'This engaging and quirky piece of social history is the perfect read between a Sunday roast and a post-prandial snooze.' Country Life

Praise for Daniel Gray’s work…

‘Delightfully written. Countless little gems of recognition and satisfaction, many of them very funny. A lovely little thing.’ Daily Telegraph

'Engaging … Sprinkled with a digestible amount of social history and commentary.' Daily Mail

‘Gray is a master of observing and amplifying the things we love … but wonder if anyone else even notices.’ The Times

‘Gray writes like Lowry paints. Superb’ BBC Lancashire

‘A damn good read.’ Val McDermid