Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.