The story of a mum who complained about local shops running out of custard powder has featured in a new book of quirky local newspaper tales.
Viking Books has put together a collection of some of the strangest – and silliest – stories from the UK local press, many of which have also appeared as ‘Friday Funnies’ on HTFP.
Entitled ”Whitstable Mum in Custard Shortage . . . And Other World Exclusives from Britain’s Finest Local Newspapers,’ the book takes its title fromthe infamous ‘eggs-clusive’ first published by the Whitstable Times in 2009.
Editor John Nurden defended the decision to run the story, which centred on keen cook Jules Serkin’s inability to find any custard powder on sale in her local shops, against a barrage of complaints from readers.
Also appearing in the book is the Lichfield Mercury story about a popular local moggie which appeared under the headline ‘Tributes as popular Lichfield cat dies.’
Other memorable local newspaper headlines featured in the book include ‘Man found nailed to bench’, ‘Chair destroyed,’ ‘Road stays open’, ‘Oven removed from home’ and ‘No flood warnings for North Somerset’.
Local newspaper editors have been sent letters from Viking Books, which is part of Penguin, in recent weeks asking for permission to use their ‘quirkiest, oddest and most locally-specific headlines and articles’ for the book.
The book is available from 13 October and can be pre-ordered now. More information from [email protected].
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Paper was quite right to publish the custard story – look at the publicity it has generated.
But if the “keen cook” mentioned in the piece was really a keen cook then she would know that proper custard does not come in packets. You make it, love…with ingredients.
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I remember Chair Destroyed. Something about an old office chair being found on a piece of wasteland in Cumbria. Dunno if it was the splash. Wouldn’t be surprised.
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Chair destroyed couldn’t be the splash. It wouldn’t have a leg to stand on
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This the sort of thing I’d like to ReTweet or share on Facebook, despite the redesign I can’t spot these buttons… Come on HTFP, they aren’t tricky to add! Or am I being a bit daft and can’t spot them…
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There is a ‘Tweet this’ button at the top of the story Nic and a ‘Share’ button which includes Facebook. Neither of these features was available on the old site.
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Oh why would anybody want to tweet this? Haven’t you got enough work to do?
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We had a ‘man has sex with fence’ story once…must be a contender.
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