Book Review: Shop Horror: The Best of the Worst in British Shop Names

A nation of paronomastic shopkeepers

The fun and froth of the British High Street is brilliantly captured in this lovely photobook of quirkily named shops. 'Wooden it be nice' furniture, 'Blazing saddles' cycles, 'Change of a dress' clothes, 'Pane in the glass' windows and 'Lettuce eat', sandwiches will give you an idea of how groaningly wonderful these shops are.

The book is basically one photo to a page, a straight-on shot of the shop centred on the page with a geographic caption. A simple clean layout that lets the photos speak for themselves but unfortunately every few pages there are spreads (twenty-four in all) devoted to a particular shop with a really messy layout of several photos and captions. So it's four stars and no cigar.

This is surely a genre that will produce a volume two and to help future retailers get in that book how about: 'Go away' travel, 'Happy to meat you' butchers, 'Give them a brake' cycles, 'We knead your body' sauna and a sort of predictable 'The end of window pains' glaziers.

Another book I've enjoyed along the same lines as 'Shop Horror' is 'Welcome to Britain' a photo celebration of the worst in British lifestyles and the landscape. A tongue-in-cheek treasure.

Shop Horror: The Best of the Worst in British Shop Names is available at Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | JP | CN)

Typical spread.

Typical spread. Simple straightforward presentation that works.

One of the several messily designed spreads featuring the shop owners.

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