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Rivets, trivets and galvanised buckets

£12.99

Tom Fort celebrates a quintessential cornerstone of any village in Britain – the shop – in this case a century-old hardware shop his daughter-in-law bought eighteen months before the pandemic struck the UK to run herself in their beautiful Berkshire village, outside of Reading. The family’s dream of developing the shop into one that would become the centre of village life certainly did come true, but for a very different set of circumstances. ‘Rivets, Trivets and Galvanised Buckets’ interweaves the evolution of the shop, its previous owners, and the history of the items it sells, to its customers to present a delightful study of community and the eccentricities of ordinary people.

In stock

Description

‘A hymn to hardware, charming, lyrical’ – The Sunday Times, BOOK OF THE WEEK

‘A paean to DIY’ – The Times

‘Strung together very agreeably, with dry wit and, dare I say it, considerable polish’ – Country Life

In 2018 Tom Fort’s daughter-in-law took over a century-old hardware shop. The family dreamed of developing the shop into one that would become the centre of village life; that much did come true, but not in the way they had expected.

Interweaving the evolution of the shop, its previous owners, the customers it serves and the items it sells, Rivets, Trivets & Galvanised Buckets offers a delightful study of community and shines a light on the eccentricities of ordinary people. Alongside, it presents a fascinating history of technological development; from who thought of screwdrivers to where the spirit level came from, who devised the process of galvanisation and what genius worked out that a suction pad on the end of a piece of wood could unblock sinks.

As Tom recounts: ‘A little girl came with her father into Heath and Watkins, looked around for a while and said “Daddy, this is the shop of EVERYTHING”‘. This is the story of how that happened.

Additional information

Weight 0.24 kg
Dimensions 19.6 × 12.8 × 2.8 cm
Author

Publisher

Imprint

Cover

Paperback

Pages

352

Language

English

Edition
Dewey

338.47683094229 (edition:23)

Readership

General – Trade / Code: K