The Accidental Detectorist by Nigel Richardson

Welcome to Halfman, Halfbook for my stop on the Blog Tour for The Accidental Detectorist by Nigel Richardson and published by Cassell (Part of Octopus Books).

About the Book

One man’s accidental journey into uncovering Britain’s underground obsession. A fascinating and engaging tale of metal detecting history and Britain for fans of The Detectorists.

When a travel writer is stuck on home soil in the middle of a pandemic he meets Kris Rodgers, one of Britain’s eminent metal detectorists. Dipping a toe in the hobby, Nigel quickly finds himself swept up in the world beneath the surface. Above the ground are a cast of fascinating and passionate people who open Nigel’s eyes to a subterranean world of treasure and stories that bring the history of the island to life.

Scouring the country from Cornwall to Scotland in search of treasure and the best detectorists, Nigel finds himself more immersed in the culture than he bargained for and makes his own personal journey from cynicism to obsession in his trail through the heartlands of metal detecting. From women’s groups who react against the hobby’s male bias, to the ‘Nighthawks’ who risk jail time in their pursuits, he finds his preconceptions disabused and gets to the heart of what makes this quiet community so obsessed with happy beeps.

About the Author

Nigel Richardson is a British journalist and author of five previous books who has worked at the top level for more than 25 years (13 of them on the staff of the Daily Telegraph in London). He writes about history, archaeology, landscapes, culture and wildlife conservation and has won numerous awards and commendations (UK Travel Journalist of the Year, Sunday Times Children’s Book of the Week, BBC Radio 4 Pick of the Week etc). Previous books include the travelogues Breakfast in Brighton: Adventures on the Edge of Britain and (with the actor Richard Wilson) Britain’s Best Drives: Journeys Back to the Golden Age of Motoring.

My Review

The first time that Nigel Richardson met a metal detectorist he was sat eating his lunch by the edge of a field. It wasn’t a hobby that had any appeal to him, and in a slightly sneering way, they have a terse conversation and it wasn’t helped by Richardson’s dog pilfering one of the man’s sandwiches. He had changed his mind a little about the men (and it is mostly men) who pursue this hobby after watching the brilliant TV comedy, The Detectorists.

Roll on five years and a travel writer who is unable to travel because of a pandemic is going to get quite bored and stuck at home. He managed to get a column that paid and the idea came to him to write about the hobby. He was put in touch with a local guy called, Kris, who had a big following on YouTube. He lent him a detector and they set about a field in Kent in the search for, well for anything he could find really. They found a few things and he even found a dress pin. More importantly, he had enough material for the column. Sitting in the car after drinking tea he thought about what had happened and then set off for home.

A few weeks later he retrieved his new machine from where it was hidden behind the wheelie bins. He was starting on a journey that he never ever thought that he would take.

It was a journey that would take him to various parts of the country from his local village to the wide skies of Norfolk. He walked in fields that people had walked across hundreds of years ago and lost the items that he would find later. He would share these experiences with one person sweeping the head of their machine across another part of the field and went to big rallies where there would be hundreds of other detectorists who were as obsessed as he was becoming. The one thing that he want to find was an elusive hammered coin. Everyone else seemed to have found them.

I liked this gentle heart-warming tale as Richardson tells how he discovered a new hobby that quickly becomes an obsession. He writes well, and it is an amusing and entertaining book to read. What made the book for me is his descriptions of the characters who occupy the detectorist landscape as well as that thrill of finding a little bit of history for yourself.

Don’t forget to visit the other blogs on the blog tour:

Buy this at your local independent bookshop. If you’re not sure where your nearest is then you can find one here

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1I6nGZCeCQEzaRTF_ST3SkZ9Y6j4OnO_W&ll=53.88013082599319%2C-3.7254416000000674&z=6

My thanks to Anne Cater of Random Things Tours for arranging a copy of the book to read.