The Gnome King reviewed Unofficial Britain by Gareth E. Rees
Review of 'Unofficial Britain' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Well this book was certainly an eye opener for me, it wasn't long ago that I found out the kid from Home Alone was 40 and I felt really old...now I find out the the buildings of my youth are old enough now to potentially be haunted, I feel positively ancient now.
In this book Rees explores those places that are right in front of us but at the same time are almost hidden, Multi-storey car parks, industrial estates, pylons, flyovers and hospitals. These are the sort of places we take for granted, we have grown up around them and think of them as landmarks only, not many people realise there is so much life happening around or under them. To me the spaghetti junction is a nightmare of a road to navigate, but there are many who have found peace living beneath it, the way Rees describes things, it …
Well this book was certainly an eye opener for me, it wasn't long ago that I found out the kid from Home Alone was 40 and I felt really old...now I find out the the buildings of my youth are old enough now to potentially be haunted, I feel positively ancient now.
In this book Rees explores those places that are right in front of us but at the same time are almost hidden, Multi-storey car parks, industrial estates, pylons, flyovers and hospitals. These are the sort of places we take for granted, we have grown up around them and think of them as landmarks only, not many people realise there is so much life happening around or under them. To me the spaghetti junction is a nightmare of a road to navigate, but there are many who have found peace living beneath it, the way Rees describes things, it almost feels tranquil.
As a young lad I was a scout and we used to go exploring a lot, night-time walks into the countryside to find a farm, it was so eerie, large structures and abandoned machinery gave us a great time. Quite often we'd find ourselves pulled towards a large pylon, usually to listen to it's crackle and pretend we could hear voices. I have not explored like that in many years, my focus is usually looking for a bit of quite and some wildlife spotting, but after reading this I do fancy a walk around the local industrial estate and maybe a trip to the town centre to check out the car park.
One very interesting side of this book is Rees' many references to music, film and books which have all been inspired by these structures, most notable is the books by J.G. Ballard and any movie with a young lady being stalked in a car park. Rees meets many interesting people and manages to get some great stories from them.
My favourite part of the book was his trip up the M6, I have travelled that road many times on journeys up to Scotland and so far have missed out of so much....next time it will be different.
Absolutely loved this, such a strange idea for a book which makes perfect sense when you get to the end. Give it a go because Rees' words can be quite beautiful at times.
Blog review: felcherman.wordpress.com/2020/09/26/unofficial-britain-journeys-through-unexpected-places-by-gareth-e-rees/
