As a title the Dull Men
of Great Britain is a novel and somewhat eye catching entrance into a
fascinating life of collecting and part obsessing. This need to collect is something that many
hill baggers will relate to, but it is something that can be experienced in
different areas of life and can relate to all manner of subject matter. This collecting instinct is not just a mad
obsession to visit yet another P30 or fulfil a goal of visiting every trig; it
is something that takes in the minutia of living as it can easily become the
mainstay of one’s life.
These collecting
obsessions are portrayed in all their glory in a book that is published today;
1st October 2015. The Author
of the book is Leland Carlson, who is the assistant vice president of the Dull
Men’s Club. This role is the club’s
highest office and one that I suspect Leland is proud of in a sort of tongue in
cheek way, after all a fascination with collecting should be accepted and
enjoyed, and occasionally joked about.
Dull Men of Great Britain in all their glory |
The Dull Men’s Club was formed
by Leland and his friend; Grover Click when they were both living in New
York. The club formed the centre piece
of a life away from the bright lights of New York’s glamour and gave them an
opportunity to enjoy ordinary and mundane everyday things. This club gave them a reason to proclaim
their Dullness to the world and a voice saying that it was OK to be Dull.
Leland spends his time between
the enticing excitement of America and Britain and since the club’s formation he
has expanded Dullness to take in many unusual aspects, including a best-selling
Calendar, entitled Dull Men of Great Britain.
This title is now being re-used for the book, which some may say is a
portrayal in Dullness itself as when something works, why change it?
Leland Carlson - author and assistant vice president of the Dull Men's Club |
Whereas the Calendar
unsurprisingly concentrates on 12 Dull Men, the book has developed this theme
and expanded to take in the esoteric lives of 40 people or teams who glorify
their lives in unusual passions. These
passions take in many forms and include people who collect beer cans, milk
bottles, golf balls, bricks, lawnmowers, tax discs and traffic cones. Many of these are not the standard
collections of youth when scouring bars for a multitude of different varieties
of beer mats seemed a normal pastime, or the standard stamp collections or coin
collections merged from one into another.
This is where I plead my guilt as my collection fascination doesn’t
start at hill bagging / surveying, it has its origins in my youth when an old
coin, or beer mat or a new stamp was a prized commodity. These collections and the passion of the
people in this book are on a different scale to the collections of my youth,
these people have a perspective of pleasure seemingly unquenchable by their
goal of collecting.
It is not just the avid
collector that this book concentrates on; it is also such important
organisations as the Apostrophe Protection Society, Park Bench Appreciation
Society and the Roundabouts Appreciation Society that form the basis of the
book. The latter Society also has its
founding member glorified in all their uninhibited enthusiasm on the front
cover of the book taking a photograph of a roundabout. The book also details the unusual activities
that many may find hard to quantify or neatly file under a collector or a
society, one of these unusual activities details the esoteric nature of three
Mountain Measurers.
These Mountain Measurers appear
on page 48 of the book and are named; I won’t name them here in case I course
offence or embarrassment, but let’s just say that they know who they are. They are quoted as saying important things
such as ‘it’s much more fun to upgrade a hill to a mountain than the other way
round’ and ‘it brings together wonderful things like science and technology,
health and fitness – in beautiful settings.’
These quotes are factual, correct and very Dull.
The Mountain Measurers |
But we are not the only ones
hidden away amongst the great and good of Britain’s Dullest people, there is
also the small matter of someone who collects trig pillars, again I won’t name
this person, but he knows who he is. The
category of obsessive can be neatly filed under collector, this is something
that the Mountain Measurers are proud to have avoided as they each view an
unusual activity to be Duller than someone who collects things, especially trig
pillars. Anyway, the trig collector
appears on page 78 and is quoted as professing that this activity is a ‘tickable
commodity’ and that ‘it’s all good fun’.
The Dull Men of Great Britain
is available from all good retail outlets and is priced £8.99. It is highly recommended and will no doubt
form the basis of many a banterous evening over a jar or two.
The Mountain Measurers would
like to express their thanks to Leland for enquiring about our unusual and
passionate activity, and for his unbridled passion in being a Dull Man. It’s been great fun Leland, thanks.
A number of news outlets have covered the launch of the Dull Men of Great Britain book:
Daily Mail
Daily Record
The Sun
The Telegraph
The Mirror
Birmingham Mail
The Times
Yorkshire Post
Express
ITV News
Irish Mirror
Grough
Please click on the link below if you would like to purchase a copy.
A number of news outlets have covered the launch of the Dull Men of Great Britain book:
Daily Mail
Daily Record
The Sun
The Telegraph
The Mirror
Birmingham Mail
The Times
Yorkshire Post
Express
ITV News
Irish Mirror
Grough
Please click on the link below if you would like to purchase a copy.
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