Bollocks to Alton Towers

Author: Alex Morris
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0141905999
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 297

Book Description
The British Lawnmower Museum, Keith Harding's World of Mechanical Music and Mad Jack's Sugar Loaf. In a world of theme parks, interactive exhibits, over-priced merchandise and queues, don't worry, these are names to stir the soul. Reassuring evidence that there's still somewhere to turn in search of the small, fascinating, unique and, dammit, British. In a stumbling journey across the country in search of the best we have to offer our intrepid heroes discovered dinosaurs in South London, a cold war castle in Essex, grown men pretending to be warships in Scarborough, unexplained tunnels under Liverpool and a terraced house in Bedford being kept warm for Jesus's return. And along the way they met the people behind them all: enthusiasts, eccentrics and, you know, those who just sort of fell into looking after a vast collection of gnomes ... Makes you proud!

More Bollocks to Alton Towers

Author: Alex Morris
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0141918772
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 488

Book Description
Leave the hordes behind, pack some sandwiches and head off for a grand day out. Whether it's the National Fruit Collection or the pub where time stood still, Britain is stuffed full of surprising and idiosyncratic local attractions. The authors of Bollocks to Alton Towers, the bestselling celebration of the plucky underdogs of tourism, have ventured even farther off the beaten track and into the corners that corporate branding forgot, to bring you more unique, glorious and uncomonly British days out. Here you'll discover: The garden centre with a replica of Del Boy's living room The joys of a Melton Mowbray pork pie pilgramage The rude charms of the Boscastle Witchcraft Museum The Clowns' Gallery that paints a smile on Hackney's face This book is a reminder of all the odd things that make the British what we are. A hidden, eccentric and joyous world of teas, fans, trains, shoes and puppets is waiting for you out there - far from the sodding crowd.

Micromuseology

Author: Fiona Candlin
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1474254977
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 241

Book Description
How would our understanding of museums change if we used the Vintage Wireless Museum or the Museum of Witchcraft as examples – rather than the British Museum or the Louvre? Although there are thousands of small, independent, single-subject museums in the UK, Europe and North America, the field of museum studies remains focused almost exclusively on major institutions. In this ground-breaking new book, Fiona Candlin reveals how micromuseums challenge preconceived ideas about what museums are and how they operate. Based on extensive fieldwork and analysis of more than fifty micromuseums, she shows how they offer dramatically different models of curation, interpretation and visitor experience, and how their analysis generates new perspectives on subjects such as display, objects, collections, architecture, and the public sphere. The first-ever book dedicated to the subject, Micromuseology provides a platform for radically rethinking key debates within museum studies. Destined to transform the field, it is essential reading for students and researchers in museum studies, anthropology, material culture studies, and visual culture.

A Ladybird Book About Donald Trump

Author: Jason Hazeley
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 140594434X
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 57

Book Description
As we prepare to wave the President out of the White House, commemorate the past four years with this charming introduction to his very important life and his many, many friends - the perfect stocking filler this Christmas. _________ 'When Donald won the election, he did not believe it. "This election was a bad, unfair election," said Donald, about the election that he won. One day, Donald might lose an election. He will not like that election at all. And when Donald is told it is time to stop being the President, who knows what exciting things will happen next?' _________ 'Anyone can grow up to become the President. Or they can become President first and think about growing up later.' _________ This delightful book is the latest in the series of Ladybird books which have been specially planned to help grown-ups with the world about them. Something the President himself could do with. The large clear script, the careful choice of words, the frequent repetition and the thoughtful matching of text with pictures all enable grown-ups to think they have taught themselves to cope. Featuring original Ladybird artwork alongside brilliantly funny, brand new text. Praise for The Story of Brexit: 'Hilarious' Stylist 'One of the Best Comedy Books of 2018' The List 'The latest offering in the hilarious Ladybird for Grown Ups series is a funny mickey-take of the Brexit debate (and boy, do we need some fun)' Sunday Post

Filthy English

Author: Peter Silverton
Publisher: Portobello Books
ISBN: 1846274524
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 229

Book Description
When the Sex Pistols swore live on tea-time telly in 1976, there was outrage across Britain. Headlines screamed. Christians marched. TVs were kicked in. Thirty years on, all those words are media-mainstream - bandied about with impunity on TV and in the papers. This is the story of our bad language and its three-decade journey from the fringes of decency to the working centre of a more linguistically liberal nation. Silverton takes a clear, comprehensive and witty look at swearing and the impact of its new acceptability on our language, our manners and our society. He considers how we have become more openly emotional, yet more wary about insulting others. And how it's seemingly become alright to say **** and **** but not ****** or ****. This is the story of that cultural revolution, written by one who was there at the start, proudly striking some of the first blows in the long struggle for the right to reclaim filthy English and use it.

Sperm, Wonderful Sperm!

Author: Alan Smithie
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 1438981589
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 618

Book Description
I remember a report some time ago extolling the health benefits of the vitamins found in sperm, with the advice that in preparation for having a healthy and intelligent baby, for some months before becoming pregnant a woman should swallow her partner's sperm. You can rest assured this report was compiled by a team of men. This has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact I set out to write a book entitled "49," a humorously light-hearted fly-on-the-wall look at my life from the day before my forty-ninth birthday to the day I hit fifty. A story of how I was coping with being too old for a mid-life crisis, counting the days tick down until the inevitable half-century. Should I be wearing socks with sandals; when would I start to enjoy pastimes that involved either binoculars, a fishing rod, making boats out of used matchsticks, a tandem bicycle or Morris dancing? Was I developing man-breasts, and more importantly, would the next woman I meet have bingo-wings? What pre-fifty pastimes would I be consigning to the dusty bin of life - wearing Ramones T-shirts and ogling young girls; my T-shirt definitely had to go. Maybe I wouldn't even make it to the end of the book; instead I'd meet my end running the Snowdonia Marathon. As it was I did make it to the end. Having spent a year writing "49" and many months trying to get a publishing deal without success, I started to write a blog. I pretty soon realised the missing ingredient - sex: sex sells. Post a good title and you have a success; mention anal sex and you have a best-seller. Without a second thought I changed the book title to "Sperm, Wonderful Sperm!" and quickly contacted an online print-on-demand publisher. This is the result...

Archaeological Practice in Great Britain

Author: John Schofield
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 0387094539
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 242

Book Description
This manual provides a unique ‘user guide’ to practicing archaeology and working in the cultural heritage sector within the diverse settings of Great Britain, comprising of: England, Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. As part of their training, archaeologists often seek work in parts of Britain, either for experience before travelling elsewhere, or directly as part of their career progression. While this does involve reading published material on excavation techniques, archaeological theory, and specific heritage management practices, or research using the Internet, the ideal preparation to working in Britain for the first time requires practitioners to know a little about a lot. Currently, there is no single resource which provides that primary resource for budding archaeologists. Archaeological Practice in Great Britain will provide just such a resource: presented in an accessible style, with a comprehensive and up-to-date bibliography and lists of useful websites. Professionals with particular areas of expertise will contribute short sections on particular subjects, incorporated into the main text prepared by the authors. Throughout, the specific contexts and differences between the various component nations and regions of Great Britain will be made clear.

What are Archives?

Author: Louise Craven
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134759800
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 225

Book Description
This collection of essays breaks new ground in archival studies in the UK where professional archival texts have traditionally concentrated on the how, not the why, of archival work. Studies of the theoretical role of, for example, the archive and the text or the archive and political power, have meanwhile been undertaken in other academic disciplines where there is an established forum for the discussion of related issues. This book invites the archivist to join that arena of debate, whilst appealing to all those interested in archives from other disciplines; the authors encourage archivists to step away from the practicalities of keeping archives to consider what it is they actually do in the cultural context of the early 21st century. The wider context of technological innovation and the internet form the backdrop to this collection. The book explores change and continuity in the archival paradigm, the textual nature of archives and asks if views of manuscripts and personal papers are changing; it looks at specific developments in community archives, at concepts of identity and culture in archives and it presents the fruits of innovative studies of users of archives. Taken together, these essays, written by leading experts in the field, provide a new understanding of the role of the archive today.

Stories from small museums

Author: Fiona Candlin
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 1526166852
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 327

Book Description
During the late twentieth century, the number of museums in the UK dramatically increased. Typically small and independent, the new museums concentrated on local history, war and transport. This book asks who founded them, how and why. In order to find out more, Fiona Candlin, a professor in museology, and Toby Butler, an expert oral historian, travelled around the UK to meet the individuals, families, community groups and special interest societies who established the museums. The rich oral histories they collected provide a new account of recent museum history – one that weaves together personal experience and social change while putting ordinary people at the heart of cultural production. Combining academic rigour with a lively writing style, Stories from small museums is essential reading for students and museum enthusiasts alike.

In the Ruins of the Cold War Bunker

Author: Luke Bennett
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1783487356
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 280

Book Description
During the Cold War military and civil defence bunkers were an evocative materialisation of deadly military stand-off. They were also a symbol of a deeply affective, pervasive anxiety about the prospect of world-destroying nuclear war. But following the sudden fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 these sites were swiftly abandoned, and exposed to both material and semantic ruination. This volume investigates the uses and meanings now projected onto these seeming blank, derelict spaces. It explores how engagements with bunker ruins provide fertile ground for the study of improvised meaning making, place-attachment, hobby practices, social materiality and trauma studies. With its commentators ranging across the arts and humanities and the social sciences, this multi-disciplinary collection sets a concern with the phenomenological qualities of these places as contemporary ruins – and of their strange affective affordances – alongside scholarship examining how these places embody, and/or otherwise connect with their Cold War originations and purpose both materially and through memory and trauma. Each contribution reflexively considers the process of engaging with these places – and whether via the archive or direct sensory immersion. In doing so the book broadens the bunker’s contemporary signification and contributes to theoretically informed analysis of ruination, place attachment, meaning making, and material culture.