Greyhound racing moves upmarket, 1987

‘Willis Hall had become a “fully fledged greyhound journalist” then a serial, and serially unsuccessful, greyhound owner’: Emma Beddington. Photograph: Peter Lavery

‘The first words a Yorkshire child utters are not “Mama” and “Dada” but, “I didn’t steal your bloody dog.”’ Attributed to Lassie author Eric Knight, this bold statement set the hare running on the Observer Magazine’s January 1987 exploration of greyhounds and the people who raced and loved them.

Seven years before Blur’s Parklife album cover gave them a Britpop glow-up, ‘Dog tracks have been steadily shedding their traditional cloth-cap image and moving upmarket.’