After spending a few days in the lovely Liverpool I found time for quite a bit of culture, some good food and some giggles about the posh-ness of the hotel room. I visited one bookshop in Sefton and managed to restrict myself to buying only 1 book. I was very impressed with myself. I did go into the Waterstones in Liverpool One but I was so put off by the prices of new books that I did not buy any. I spotted a few good potential buys though and might have to treat myself again a bit later in the year. Think I need to buy a new bike first a the rear wheel is really loose and the bike is getting impossible to use... just in time for Christmas.
So.. books bought: 1
Books to be read: 76
But fear not friends.. I have finished one as well! I think I will not be needing the spoilers for this one.
Follies - Sir Hugh Casson (Ed)
This one is a charming little book about Follies. For those that do not know: a Folly is a building that is merely ornamental, apparently constructed for a certain purpose but not actually fulfilling that purpose; a ruin that is not really a ruin, a tower that you cannot really climb etc. At times they were built as poor relief. People would work on them and get paid when times were hard and there was no other work to be had.
The book I have dates back to 1963 and reading it I did wonder how many of these follies are still around at present. Some of them were said to be in a bad state of repair at the time the author visited them so they might already be lost and fallen down.
The book is basically a list of follies, who built them, where they are and what they look like. The drawings adjoining some of the descriptions are excellent! Some of these buildings just seem so random. It makes you wonder why people bothered with these buildings. What possessed someone to build a chicken coop that looks like a pyramid made of yellow brick? Why build a Colosseum-like building, just the one circular wall, nothing else behind it. What mind wants to construct a triangular building where everything seems to came back to the number three (triangular building, three floors, rooms that are three or six-sided)? Sometimes we learn a bit about the history of why the folly was built but not always.. which is a shame. Not to the discredit to the editor. He had to work with the information he had available and it seems that it was not always recorded why these buildings were built. A lot of the follies seem to be sham castles, sham ruins or sham look out towers. Many of them have a mixture of building styles. One folly has a tower that is almost Gothic in style on one side and more broad and roman like on the other. Maybe the builders could not agree on what it needed to be and decided to go for both? Even London has some follies.... should be able to find them! Actually, after reading this book I had the idea of taking some time off and plan a trip around a few of them! It might be fun trying to find them although the author does advise to make sure you check if if is on private land before you venture towards any of them! Sound advice.
A fun little book on what kind of weird things man gets up to building in wanting to adorn their gardens and estates with something other than a run of the mill garden gnome.
Title: Follies
Author: Sir Hugh Casson (Ed)
124 pages
Chatto And Windus Limited
No ISBN nr
Books to be read: 75
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