The joy of sheds - Frank Hopkinson

The Joy of Sheds is a shed miscellany that chronicles man's need for a small space on his own. It's a humorous look at every aspect of the shed experience, mixed with shed facts and some practical information too.

Many famous people have created in sheds. Inventor Trevor Baylis thought up the clockwork radio in a shed, George Bernard Shaw wrote Pygmalian in one and Dylan Thomas would compose poetry in his. The average UK male does not tend to devote his shed to poetry, though.

Along with chapters on how to customize your shed into an exotic creation, "Pimp Your Shed", there are "Shed Facts": Almost a fifth of men have had an accident in a shed, it's the single most dangerous place in the home after the kitchen.

Other chapters include "Shed Vision", on the typical items stored in sheds, and "The Genus Shed", which places the shed in the Linnaean order of buildings.

"Shed Experience" pulls in shed stories from around the world, but particularly Australia, and there are also tales of the "Euro-Shed".

There are chapters on "Sheds in Literature" (Lady Chatterly's Lover and Cold Comfort Farm), "Sheds at the Movies", and "Sheds in Music".