Eccentric Britain, 2nd: The Bradt Guide to Britain's Follies and Foibles (Bradt Travel Guide) [Paperback]

Benedict le Vay (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2005 | Series: Bradt Travel Guide

A guide to offbeat people, places, and events in Great Britain.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Le Vay's catalogue of British oddities is so impressive that EU commissioners might question whether such a nation should remain within the Union."
--Anthony Sattin, The Sunday Times

From the Back Cover

Derbyshire pub regulars compete at toe-wrestling; a Buckinghamshire mayor is weighed in public and heckled if he has piled on the pounds; a Yorkshireman builds a 30 ft Tin Man to personify the heartlessness of council planners. Join the locals as they sing to apple trees, attend church dressed as clowns, engage in raucous fertility dances, guzzle chilli beer, savor garlic ice cream or celebrate Left-Handers' Day. Elsewhere these characters would be called crackpots. In Britain, we respect them and call them "eccentrics."
Eccentric Britain celebrates all these, together with the fascinating follies, peculiar pubs, curious ceremonies and mad marquesses that make this country unique. For the visitor wanting to know where to expect the unexpected, or longing to be let in on the local lore, Benedict le Vay's Eccentric Britain is ideal. But it's also an entertaining read in its own right. If you're not shaking your head in wonder, you'll be cracking up laughing.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: Bradt Travel Guides; 2nd edition (August 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1841621226
• ISBN-13: 978-1841621227
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,088,119 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Let this be your travelogue for a unique vacation, July 29, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Eccentric Britain : The Guide to Britain's Follies and Foibles (Bradt Guides) (Paperback)

I'd often heard that Britain had a tolerance for eccentrics, but I never knew to what extent. Some of these people are really, really weird, and they put more effort into bizzare hobbies, old local customs, and freaky sporting events than you would think possible. Wouldn't it be interesting if Americans spent more time going to blood sausage throwing contests than kid's sports tournaments? Together with Bill Bryson's "Notes from a Small Island", you could spend a extremely interesting vacation in Britain without ever going near any of the usual tourist haunts.

5.0 out of 5 stars See, Britain Has More Colors Than Just Gray..., September 10, 2006

By 

Notnadia (Currently upstairs.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eccentric Britain : The Guide to Britain's Follies and Foibles (Bradt Guides) (Paperback)

Britain. Wow, what a place. End to end it's colorful (hence the gray thing in the title, little reference to the weather, you know) it's weird, and it's not afraid to celebrate its peccadilloes. It's so interesting there it makes me wonder, as I always do, why the locals ever felt the need to leave and, oh, I dunno, bug the Irish so much. That said (hey, it was my sworn duty) this seriously is a neat book and I enjoyed it a lot. It's full of stories almost too odd to be real and places that call out to you to visit. From cursed chairs in innocuous pubs, to aliens and crop circles, to festivals that merrily commemorate the droolingly insane side to life---shin-kicking contests and Guy Fawke's Day---this island has it all and this book tells you about it. When and if I go next summer for the first time in nine years, I'm going to check out as many as I can of the freakish locales Benedict le Vay (any relation to Morgan le Fay, I wonder?) writes about. Read this book and come away with more respect than ever for the eccentric-loving people who gave us Eastenders, "classic" literature, and one darn cool flag (quite honestly worn over there as underwear) the Union Jack.