Behind the Scenes at the Museum of Baked Beans: My Search for Britain's Maddest Museums

Description

Witty and eccentric Behind the Scenes at the Museum of Baked Beans traces Hunter Davies' search for the strangest collections in the UK '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...

Hunter Davies is a master collector and prolific writer. From his biography of The Beatles, reissued by Ebury in 2009, to his classic football book The Glory Game his publishing history is as diverse as it is successful; he has also ghosted everyone from Wayne Rooney to John Prescott. Hunter Davies also writes for The Sunday Times, Guardian, Daily Mail and The New Statesman and presented Bookshelf on BBC Radio 4 for three years.

Affable, curious, unpretentious, never dull, Hunter is one of the most agreeable egomaniacs I know * Michael Palin * I love Hunter to bits, and he cannot write a boring line * Jilly Cooper * Only Hunter Davies, the sage of the Lake District, could have come up with the worst idea yet for a book - Behind the Scenes at the Museum of Baked Beans. Only Hunter Davies could have made it irresistible and have publishers all over Britain asking themselves why they didn't think of it. Stand by for a rash of clones. Meanwhile, buy it and read it * Michael Grade * Only Hunter Davies could write a book called Behind the Scenes at the Museum of Baked Beans and only Hunter Davies could make it as entertaining, informative and whimsical as this * Alastair Campbell * This is "show and tell" on a grand scale. The bizarre world of weird and wonderful collections and hoardings laid bare by our own national treasure, Hunter Davies. Delicious * Helena Kennedy *