Behind the Scenes at the Museum of Baked Beans
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Book Description
Witty and eccentric Behind the Scenes at the Museum of Baked Beans traces Hunter Davies' search for the strangest collections in the UK
Product Description
'I am fascinated by people turning their daft dreams into a reality. How did they do it and why?'
Driven by his own passion for collecting Hunter Davies has packed his notepad and set off in search of Britain's maddest museums. As he explores these hidden gems he soon discovers that they are everywhere and that they celebrate just about everything, from lawnmowers in Southport to pencils in Keswick.
But as Hunter travels up and down the country he comes to realise that it isn't only the collections that are fascinating, it's also the people who have put them together. Whether they're a man who loves his Heinz so much he's changed his name to Captain Beany or a kleptomaniac Vintage Radio buff, these eccentric collectors are Britain's finest and could live in no other country in the world.
Once you discover these museums and get to know their curators, Great Britain won't look quite the same again...
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Britain has some world class museums - The British Museum, The V & A, The Science Museum etc, etc - but we also have plenty of not so famous ones. How many people know that in the UK there are museums devoted to fans, lawnmowers, old wireless radios and even the humble baked bean? It is a fair bet that there will be many people unaware of their existence that only live within a few minutes from their location.
In his latest book Hunter Davies investigates these offbeat museums but primarily the people who have put them together and now run them. He attempts to find out what kind of people they are and what it is that motivates them. He soon learns that it is certainly not for financial gain as most of these museums barely break even let alone make a profit. Predictably he finds the occasional eccentric (the baked bean museum is ran by a man who has had his name changed to Captain Beany, and his mobile phone ringtone requests that Captain Beany communicate to Planet Beanus) but also a lady who has used her museum to help get over a bereavement, a man whose love of the old fashioned help curve his childhood criminal tendencies and various people whose mania for collecting has left them with the desire to exhibit their treasures to the public.
Unfortunately I don't really think these stories are sufficient to carry a whole book and I would have preferred to have read more about the actual museums and their contents than what this book offers. This kind of information is far better given in the two `Bollocks to Alton Towers' books that also cover this type of visitor attraction. Not only are these books more informative but they are also written in a much more entertaining style.
Whilst this is not a bad book, I was expecting rather more from it than it offers. It is certainly not in the same league as the same authors mighty `The Glory Game', forty years on still the finest ever look at the everyday life of a professional football club.
In his latest book Hunter Davies investigates these offbeat museums but primarily the people who have put them together and now run them. He attempts to find out what kind of people they are and what it is that motivates them. He soon learns that it is certainly not for financial gain as most of these museums barely break even let alone make a profit. Predictably he finds the occasional eccentric (the baked bean museum is ran by a man who has had his name changed to Captain Beany, and his mobile phone ringtone requests that Captain Beany communicate to Planet Beanus) but also a lady who has used her museum to help get over a bereavement, a man whose love of the old fashioned help curve his childhood criminal tendencies and various people whose mania for collecting has left them with the desire to exhibit their treasures to the public.
Unfortunately I don't really think these stories are sufficient to carry a whole book and I would have preferred to have read more about the actual museums and their contents than what this book offers. This kind of information is far better given in the two `Bollocks to Alton Towers' books that also cover this type of visitor attraction. Not only are these books more informative but they are also written in a much more entertaining style.
Whilst this is not a bad book, I was expecting rather more from it than it offers. It is certainly not in the same league as the same authors mighty `The Glory Game', forty years on still the finest ever look at the everyday life of a professional football club.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is an entertaining enough traipse through some of Britain's more eclectic museums. The title suggests this is going to be an irreverent and tongue-in-cheek look at some daft institutions, but while a couple of museums are eccentric (The Baked Beans Museum of Excellence in particular), most of the others are verging on mainstream (such as The National Football Museum at Preston, since moved to Manchester). Davies is more interested in the people behind the museums rather than the collections themselves, and this is definitely where the book is strongest. We see what motivates the museum owners and what impact collecting has had on their lives. However, the central reasoning behind the book - that Davies is a collector himself who wants to open his own museum - comes across as contrived and fake. I got the feeling right from the start that he was never going to open a museum, it just gave him a hook on which he could sell a book to a publisher. Each chapter ends with some kind of "when I open my own museum I'll borrow that idea..." until at the end of the book Davies decides he isn't going to open a museum after all. Surprise surprise!
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