In Miniature: How Small Things Illuminate The World

Description

In Miniature is a delightful, entertaining and illuminating investigation into our peculiar fascination with making things small, and what small things tell us about the world at large. Here you will find the secret histories of tiny Eiffel Towers, the truth about the flea circus, a doll's house made for a queen, eerie tableaux of crime scenes, miniature food, model villages and railways, and more. Simon Garfield brings together history, psychology, art and obsession, to explore what fuels the strong appeal of miniature objects among collectors, modellers and fans, and teaches us that there is greatness in the diminutive.

Simon Garfield is the author of a number of acclaimed books of non-fiction including A Notable Woman (as editor), To the Letter, On the Map, Just My Type and Mauve. His study of AIDS in Britain, The End of Innocence, won the Somerset Maugham Award. simongarfield.com

A rare treat, convivial and smart and brimming with intrigue. Simon Garfield excavates the curiouser of small worlds where not all is as it seems - obscure and wondrous, a bit bonkers and totally fascinating, and just my cup of tea -- KEGGIE CAREW, author of Dadland Garfield's book is thrilling, touching and very, very funny -- NINA STIBBE This intriguing study of our urge to make scale models is full of bizarre stories and poignant insight . . . engaging and exuberant . . . The moral seems to be that we're all small, relatively speaking, which is perhaps why In Miniature is not only highly entertaining; it is also moving * * Observer * * If you are someone who appreciates the quirkier byways of human endeavour, there's plenty to surprise and delight in this compendium * * The Times * * Fascinating and often funny . . . As a (scaled-down) book, In Miniature is a well-built, highly polished entity. It is full of evocative sentences amusing drive-by thwacks . . . But what he also shows in abundance is the sympathetic understanding of the needs and travails of "ordinary" people that lit up his previous books * * Guardian * * In Miniature is a delicious read; quirky, unpredictable and written with a genuine savour for the subject * * Mail on Sunday * * Simon Garfield's enthusiasm . . . is irresistible . . . Garfield offers not just intriguing snapshots of curiosities but some rather interesting history lessons * * Spectator * * Delightful . . . In Miniature is fascinating, funny and, in places, unexpectedly moving . . . This book is proof of the old adage that good things come in small packages * * Literary Review * * Garfield's intelligent exploration of mankind's passion for making small versions of large objects is meticulously researched * * Daily Express, Books of the Year * * Fashioned with as much love of, and relish for, the telling detail as many of the scaled-down creations it surveys, In Miniature finds Simon Garfield at both his wittiest and his most profound and philosophical. It is a book that puts the little things into the big picture, its perspective generous and its scope wide; you will never look at a doll house or model train quite the same again. Were I not an atheist I would proclaim him the god of small things -- TRAVIS ELBOROUGH