AN EYE-OPENER to the weird and wonderful events that make up the quirkier side of the British sporting calendar. From cheese rolling to snail racing, Scotland to Devon and winter sports to summer pastimes this guide gives you an assortment of extraordinary dates for your diary. The spectacular and humorous pictures capture the pure eccentricity of the community-based events and witty descriptions make this book an entertaining read. A celebration of peculiarly wonderful British traditions with maps and information on dates and times, this book will leave you not knowing where to head first, woolsack racing, pea shooting or maybe even bog snorkelling.

Read this now in its pure form before someone gets hold of the idea and makes an awful reality tv show on the same theme.

We just added the new and quite brilliant ‘A Brit Different’ to the store. This is so worth a look: ‘A Brit Different’ is a celebration of the weird and wonderful contests that help to make Britain great. The book covers 50 of our most eccentric events: from the relatively mild ‘World Poo Sticks Championships’, to the downright extreme ‘World Stinging Nettle Eating Championships’. Each contest gets an in-depth review, plus all the essential practical info about who takes part, where it’s held, how much it costs and whether there’s a prize. Other contests include: The Shirt Race, where competitors race from pub to pub in a pram and have to down a pint in each one, World Mountain Bike Bog Snorkling, World Black Pudding Throwing Championships, World Toe Wrestling Championships, Shrovetide Football and many more weird and crazy sports and challenges we Brit’s love to take part in! Beautifully illustrated with hundreds of inspirational colour photographs throughout, this is as good to look at as it is a celebration of our culture.

‘A Brit Different’ is a glorious book; it is full to bursting with examples of eccentricity from the Great British public that will bring a smile to your face as well as the occasional sense of disbelief at the madness of some people.  This books documents the weird and wonderful events and competitions that go on across the UK, including cheese rolling, nettle eating, gravy wrestling, wife carrying races and the air guitaring championships. This book is great fun and is full of excellent photography from the talented Emma Wood and informative descriptions from Keith Didcock stating ‘who, when and where’ along with maps and amusing descriptions of the listed events. It is quirky in style and an amusing read, which will make you want to venture to these excellent events and witness them for yourself. A good laugh.

‘A Brit Different’ is the brand-new beautifully illustrated guide to the slightly stranger side of the UK’s underground sporting calendar. Featuring hundreds of stunning action shots from photographer (and Ladies Mountain Bike Bog Snorkeling Champion) Emma Wood, A Brit Different is the very first full-colour guide to the wacky sporting sub-culture. With over 50 bizarre events to choose from – from combat sports such as gravy wrestling and shin kicking, to racing Santa Clauses, wheelbarrows and snails, it is the perfect alternative for anyone who can’t understand why you might watch 90 minutes of millionaires kicking a ball around a field. Whatever your sporting prowess, and whatever floats your competitive boat, this book will take you on a stunning photographic journey through our thoroughly vibrant sporting world and provide you with beautiful and timeless reminder of the eccentricities that make the UK that little brit different.

Each year, on the last Saturday of June, people gather in Willaston, Cheshire, to compete for the World Worm Charming Champion trophy. Here, using only sound and vibration, contestants must battle it out to woo as many worms as possible from the ground, in just 30 minutes. This and 49 other wacky sporting events are the meat and two veg of ‘A Brit Different’. Photographer Emma Wood and writer Keith Didcock toured Britain’s beer gardens, summer fêtes and village halls to compile this brilliant how-to guide to the quirky sporting calendar. From shin kicking and stinging nettle eating to toe wrestling and custard pie throwing championships, it has them all. Packed with practical advice, photos, contest history and rules, this is the book to read if you want to tap into the weird and wonderful side of British culture.

‘A Brit Different’ by Emma Wood and Keith Didcock published by Punk Publishing. This book is full of joy and delight and glee and eccentricity. It’s an illustrated book of ridiculous British competitions, from The World Pea Shooting Championships in Cambridgeshire to The Mince Pie Eating Championship in Wookey, Somerset, via the Ossett World Coal Carrying Championships… click here to listen

‘A Brit Different’ by Emma Woods and Keith Didcock has a somewhat academic-tourist-guide sub-title: ‘A Guide to the Eccentric Events and Curious Contests of Britain’. It is itself an eccentric kind of book – on the surface giving an impression of a pop-media photo album with a playful PR-style title, yet on the inside it is a splendidly illustrated and highly comprehensive study comparable to an academic work by its depth, thoroughness and carefulness. The book is well structured by the seasons and the counties of Great Britain, and not only describes in detail the origins, development, terms and conditions of entries and prizes, and present status of some of the most eccentric customs and traditions, but offers numerous high quality photographs to accompany each event. It may be said with no exaggeration that Ben Le Vay, our friend and esteemed member, a celebrated author of numerous ‘eccentric guides’ to Britain and its various parts, is getting a strong competition emerging in the authors of ‘A Brit Different’. The book is both – a field research at its best (and no similar in-depth researches of that subject were undertaken for at least a couple of decades) and an entertaining and eye-opening/widening reading, a true journey of discovery of a more than eccentric Britain. The Eccentric Club Secretary shamefully admits that there were even the events in the book he had no knowledge of, which only emphasises the fine detail of the preparatory work by the authors; their splendid accomplishment of it is obvious from the final result.