Uncommonly British Days Out

Bollocks to Alton Towers

A hilarious and charming search for the country's most charming and eccentric days out.

Jason Hazeley &amp; Joel Morris are the award-winning authors of the bestselling Ladybird Books For Grown-Ups series. 
 
 They write for Charlie Brooker's BAFTA award-winning Wipe shows, and co-wrote Cunk on Shakespeare, Cunk on Christmas and Cunk on Britain. They have also written for the award-winning Murder in Successville, the award-winning Miranda, the award-winning Mitchell &amp; Webb, the award-winning Armstrong &amp; Miller and a long list of shows and people both award-winning and so-far-award-avoiding. 
 
 They created and wrote the critically lauded but as yet un-awarded Ångström for BBC Radio 4, and helped write both the award-winning Paddington movies. They are co-creators of spoof local newspaper The Framley Examiner (awards pending) and the bestselling but still-waiting-to-be-award-winning offbeat travel guides Bollocks to Alton Towers and Far from the Sodding Crowd. 
 
 They present the podcast Rule of Three (Guardian Guide Best 50 Podcasts 2018 - is that an award?) and divide their time between their office, where they keep their awards, and an award-winning pub.

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!

Robin Halstead

Jason Hazeley

Alex Morris

Joel Morris

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.

Robin Halstead

Books by Robin Halstead

Series by Robin Halstead

Bollocks to Alton Towers

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