Bollocks to Alton Towers: Uncommonly British Days Out () is a humorous travel book written by Robin Halstead, Jason Hazeley, Alex Morris, and Joel Morris (the creators of The Framley Examiner), which showcases unusual attractions, left-field museums and one-off days out in the United Kingdom.
The introduction describes the book as "a collection of the underdogs of British tourism... [that] say more about Britain and the British than any number of corkscrew thrill rides or high-tech Interactive Visitor Experiences."
The book was published in hardback by Michael Joseph Ltd (an imprint of the Penguin Group) in 2005. It was also published in paperback by Penguin Books in 2006. The book received favourable reviews from The Times, The Press, and The Daily Telegraph.
The theme park Alton Towers mentioned in the title responded by offering free entry in May 2005 to anyone who arrived with a garden gnome.
A sequel, titled Far From the Sodding Crowd, was published in hardback in 2007. A paperback edition, More Bollocks to Alton Towers, () was published in April 2008. A short documentary, also titled Far From the Sodding Crowd, was made in 2009 and features some of the attractions included in both books, as well as writers Jason Hazeley and Joel Morris.
Contents
Attractions covered in the book:
Blackgang Chine, Isle of Wight British Lawnmower Museum, Southport Peasholm Park Naval Warfare, Scarborough Louis Tussaud's House of Wax, Great Yarmouth (closed in 2013) Kelvedon Hatch Secret Nuclear Bunker, Essex Porteath Bee Centre, Cornwall (closed) Mad Jack's Sugar Loaf, East Sussex Keith and Dufftown Railway, Moray, Scotland The EastEnders Set, BBC Elstree Centre, Hertfordshire Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford Eden Ostrich World, Penrith (closed around 2011) Keith Harding's World of Mechanical Music, Northleach, Gloucestershire (closed) Shah Jahan Mosque, Woking The Beckham Trail, London Borough of Waltham Forest Mother Shipton's Cave and Dripping Well, Knaresborough, North Yorkshire Apollo Pavilion, Peterlee, County Durham Hamilton Toy Collection, Callander, Stirling Imber, Wiltshire Cumberland Pencil Museum, Keswick Pack o' Cards Inn, Combe Martin, Devon Diggerland, Strood, Kent Orford Ness, Suffolk Wellcome Collection, Science Museum, London Cast Courts, Victoria and Albert Museum, London Tebay Services, Cumbria The Williamson Tunnels, Liverpool Barometer World, Devon (closed as of 2022) Portmeirion, Gwynedd, North Wales Edinburgh Camera Obscura Crystal Palace Dinosaurs, London House of Marbles, Bovey Tracey, Devon Dennis Severs' House, London Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire "Ripon Tramp Museum" — actually The Workhouse Museum, Ripon, North Yorkshire Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, Anglesey, Wales South Bridge Vaults, Edinburgh Gnome Magic, Dedham, Colchester, Essex A la Ronde, Lympstone, Devon Port Sunlight, Wirral Morpeth Bagpipe Museum, Northumberland Bekonscot Model Village, Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire Avebury Stone Circle, Wiltshire Christ's House, Bedford
References
External links Far From the Sodding Crowd (Film) - Film not currently available (as of 30 August 2015) Far From the Sodding Crowd (Film) - on Vimeo