Shop Horror: The Best of the Worst in British Shop Names - Hardcover

Swillingham, Guy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0007198132 ISBN 13: 9780007198139

Publisher: Fourth Estate, 2005

Synopsis

An hilarious and beautifully designed book that is a natural successor to the cult of ‘Boring Postcards’, ‘Crap Towns’ and ‘Bad Hair’.

There comes a point when things get so bad, they’re actually good. And when it comes to naming hair salons, fish & chip shops, florists, dry cleaners, and shoe shops, there is nothing as bad – and therefore as good – as a pun-based name.

For the first, and hopefully the last, time ever the very best British shop puns have been gathered together in one stylish book. So raise a glass to Blonde Dye Bleach, The Cod Father, Floral ‘N’ Hardy, Wish You Wash Here, and Shoe-Be-Do, and pay tribute to the great British high street that has supported these classic shops.

Extra material includes: an introduction; profiles of some of the most interesting shops, and shop owners; a shop directory and an R.I.P. list of shops that have recently closed; league tables for the best punning town, and region, in the UK; and a ‘shop pun generator’.

About this title

Review:

‘Every so often a book arrives at heat towers that has us flicking through the pages and reading out all the funny bits. Shop Horror is one of those tomes.’ Heat

About the Author:

Guy is an expert on all aspects of High Street Britainfis funny shop names. From truly awful, cringe-inducing howlers to genuinely inventive and original shop fronts, he has researched, found and photographed them all. He has also interviewed the shopkeepers in a bid to find the reasoning or madness behind these amusing store fronts.

This quirky quest has taken him on over 4,000 miles through 340 cities, towns and villages across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. He returned with a photo collection of over 600 shop fronts. Only the very best of these were admitted to the hall of name and shame that is Shop Horror.

When not wearing his anorak, Guy is a TV and radio producer.

About this edition

• Publisher: Fourth Estate
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0007198132
• ISBN 13: 9780007198139
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 144