Beamish is an exciting open-air Museum, outstandingly one of the very best. It shows in a life-like way, how people of North East England lived and worked over the past 150 years. The author of this book is the man who had the idea, and who made it happen. It opened in 1971. His story is one of outstanding determination and his ruthless force comes through in his writing. The book opens with his childhood (he even had his own little museum when he was aged 10). By his early 20s he was in charge of a City museum and by 1953 (aged 29) he opened a small 'experimental' open air Museum at Halifax, Yorkshire, UK. Three years later he was beginning what is now known as BEAMISH, in County Durham, UK. Most people whould have given up long before this. But Atkinson went on. His museum now receives up to half a million visitors each year and has received the Museum of Europe Award, amongst many others. A reader (Lord Morris of Castle Morris) has written: "I commend this book to anyone who wants to know how great men get great things done"
