Thursday, February 04, 2021

Book Review: Unconsidered Trifles by Geoff Kent


Long term blog readers who remember my "Warehouse Wednesday" series of prototype photos that ran here for a few years, will know that I'm a fan of photographing interesting structures with a view to building models of them. 

It seems that I'm not alone - Geoff Kent does the same thing, and has published a book through Wild Swan with many, many fascinating photos. 

Living in a more rural part of the world than me, his are probably more useful for the majority of modellers with all sorts of old huts, signs, fences, memorials and bridges featured. 

Even if you don't plan to model any of this stuff, the A4, 64 page book can be treated as a coffee table publication and enjoyed by anyone interested in looking out of the car window as they travel, spotting interesting things. There's plenty to reminisce about if you are old enough and much useful information on aged street furniture if you aren't. 

All the photos are reproduced large enough to be useful and apart from one, in full colour too. 

Railway nerds will probably whinge there aren't enough shots of signal boxes and stuff - but these are available in lots of books, what Geoff has presented us with is all the other stuff you need for an attractive scene that isn't on your bookshelf in a compact and easy to flick through form. 

At £14.95 (from Titfield Thunderbolt) there's a lot of inspiration in these pages, making it well worth the money in my opinion.

6 comments:

James Finister said...

These sorts of books are really useful, but I will offer one caution. Rather like building a model based on preserved railways it really helps to find photos of a specific place and period. Two simple examples. The rise of the white window frame, which was once rare in either a domestic or industrial setting and changes in agriculture.

Phil Parker said...

White windows are one of my hobbyhorses as any BRM reader will know. #bitofanobsession

Huw Griffiths said...

I'm glad you didn't refer to them as a bête noire.

That would have been wrong - for all sorts of reasons.

James Finister said...

Huw, yes, French breeds of cattle didn't start to predominate until after the war.

Massive sheep, cattle and pigs are one of the things that are like a red rag to a bull to me, whereas some horse models are far too small

Phil Parker said...

*cough* Black & White cows on pre-grouping layouts *cough*

Huw Griffiths said...

Well, if those cattle come from Milton Keynes, I'm not sure they'd be of the dairy variety ... .


Slightly changing the subject,on some layouts, I could imagine road vehicles from the wrong area (or even era) also acquiring "black beast" - sorry, "bête noire" status.

You know the sort of thing - "Big Four" era layouts, with "bus services" courtesy of NBC liveried Leyland Nationals - or "current day" layouts, with all the buses being step entrance types.

Unless layouts are set in transport museums, stuff like that would never look credible.