This book is a recollection of a journey by the author taking in some of the awful places of Great Britain such as Great Yarmouth in England, Methil in Scotland and Merthyr Tydfil in Wales. To make the journey as awful as possible he took it in the worst car, did it whilst listening to the worst music, think novelty hits and albums, and was directed by the worst sat-nav voice, that of Ozzy Osbourne. He stayed at the worst hotels and ate the worst foods whilst visiting the worst tourist attractions. And he did it all at the worst time of year - in the bleak mid-winter.
Initially this book works. I particularly liked the story as to why the Austin Maestro was selected as the transport. However after the umpteenth town visited where the reason for it being awful was that it had some industry which had now disappeared made the book get a little repetitive and a bit stale as it went on. Other running themes in the book were that he'd visit a place, say a pub or museum, and it would close shortly after he'd been there. It became a bit sad after a while.
The selection of towns for the awful places was a bit random too. For example Hull was selected because it was voted worst town in the publication "Crap Towns" (in part it must be said) yet Luton wasn't selected despite being voted worst town in "Crap Towns II". Similarly Skegness was chosen by the author simply for its name sounding, to him, awful. Admittedly there was also a lot of research that went into the selection of other places, mainly through a Location, Location, Location list, but I think the final selection was made to make the most convenient journey around the country for the author.
Then at the end the last few towns were whizzed through in a rush so all you residents of Coventry, Northampton and Slough may feel short-changed.
The book was best when it involved people rather than just descriptions of the places themselves. For example there was an altercation with a Scottish Ned that was gripping. Also the author did well to get regional accents across when he did met people.
Other plus points were that I was able to follow the descriptions whereas with other travel books I have sometimes struggled to get the words to form the correct pictures in my head. Also there is a useful map on the inside front cover of the journey he took so if your town is on the route you may want to delve into the book.
Overall I felt the book could have been made better by being made shorter. For example there is one part where the author can't take it anymore and makes for home. That would have made for a good ending - Britian, you were so awful that you defeated me - but as it is it is too long resulting in the story getting stale with the issues getting repetitive.
(I got this book through Amazon Vine. It is listed on Amazon here.)
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