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    The Joy of Sheds
    The Joy of Sheds
    The Joy of Sheds
    Ebook195 pages

    The Joy of Sheds

    By Frank Hopkinson

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    The Joy of Sheds is a shed miscellany that chronicles man’s need for a small space on his own. It’s a humorous look at every aspect of the shed experience, mixed with shed facts and some practical information too.

    Many famous people have created in sheds. Inventor Trevor Baylis thought up the clockwork radio in a shed, George Bernard Shaw wrote Pygmalian in one and Dylan Thomas would compose poetry in his. The average UK male does not tend to devote his shed to poetry, though

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins UK
    Release dateNov 7, 2013
    ISBN9781909396517
    The Joy of Sheds
    Author

    Frank Hopkinson

    Frank Hopkinson is the author of The Joy of Pubs and the National Trust’s book on beekeeping, and the photographer for Remarkable Village Cricket Grounds: three subjects that regularly occur in Midsomer Murders. He has worked on arable farms and hop farms, and in his final year at London University he undertook a rural housing survey on the borders of Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, and hence recognises many of the characters regularly encountered by DCI Barnaby.

    Read more from Frank Hopkinson

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    • 4/5
      In 1968 Monty Python’s Flying Circus presented a sketch in which a man, a very serious looking man, a composer, was interviewed on a very serious looking highbrow arts show. He was introduced as Arthur “Two Sheds” Jackson, and rather than talk about his music, the interviewer spent the entire time on his nickname “Two Sheds”, eventually calling him by that alone. Now, just 45 years later, Fred Hopkinson comes out with The Joy of Sheds, an entire book on shed culture.Finally.Shedding its confining skin, the Joys of Sheds bursts forth with every conceivable use and application of sheds, around the world and throughout history. And all in under a hundred pages.The book sheds light on an underappreciated subset of humanity, mostly male, mostly western, who like to hide out in sheds, mostly of their own design and/or construction. 28% of shed owners claim they are a refuge from the world. They have turned them into bars, museums, bowling alleys and worse. Clearly, some of them have gone well beyond the backyard shed where the lawnmower shares space with rusted tools and spiders. A lot of writers, composers and other creatives find they do their best work in their sheds, from Grieg to Hirst. They are all noted here. Hopkinson divides sheds up in relevance:Shed History Hidden in a ShedSheds in MusicCreated in a ShedShed ArtSheds in the NewsShed LitShed FactsSheds on TVSheds at the MoviesSpecialty ShedsShed Impostersand Shed Plans Each brief chapter is a small collection of anecdotes on the topic, showing, I suppose that sheds can be relevant to anyone. About the only thing missing is a chapter on Shed Widows, though there are stories of women with sheds of their own. And no mention of Shediac (Canada), which I thought was the Cadillac of sheds when I was a child, inspired by the likes of Pontiac (Michigan).The most disappointing shed story belongs to a glass bottle collector in England, who turned down 80,000 pounds for his 17,500 bottles lining an ever-expanding shed. But don’t shed a tear; he actually preferred the bottles to the money. Personally, I would have sold it all including the shed, and started over bigger and better, cash in hand. All in all an unusual journey shedding light onto a subculture that has received little recognition.David Wineberg

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    The Joy of Sheds - Frank Hopkinson

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