GMT 2000 is an ambitious book of 375 pictures from world-renowned agency Magnum Photos that record how Britain spent the week leading up to the year 2000, and capture the nation on the threshold of a new era

GMT 2000 will cover not just the parties, events and launches, though these will of course be a part of the picture, but the full spectrum of human experience, including those people for whom the days were business as usual, such as nurses and farmers, whose everyday commitments transcended the event. The photographs taken inside the Millennium Dome itself will capture the spirit of the place, from the formality of the Queen's opening ceremony to the moment the first people come through the doors; and throughout the country, the photographers will focus on how the ordinary people in cities, towns and villages embraced the year 2000. Within its 375 pictures, the book's structure will simply be provided by its thought-provoking picture juxtapositions. These photographs will need minimal captioning, only times, locations and, if necessary, brief descriptions; otherwise they will speak for themselves.

A paperback in an unusually appealing format, this will be an irresistible souvenir of the millennium. To catch the public imagination, GMT 2000 will be published as soon after the New Year as humanly possible.

Coincidentally, a major exhibition to mark 50 years of Magnum Photos will be launched at London's Barbican Centre on 1 December 1999, running until 19 March 2000.