Are they the dullest men in Britain, or just quirky eccentrics?

THERE’S nothing particularly unusual about the picture of David Grisenthwaite mowing his lawn.

Most people might not want to be photographed with their lawnmower, but each to their own. I say there’s nothing unusual about this, that is until you find out that Mr Grisenthwaite, from Kirkcaldy in Scotland, has kept a diary recording every time he’s mowed the lawn ... since 1984. Yes, 1984.

It has earned him a place in the Dull Men of Great Britain, which comes out today. The book features 40 different, some might say mundane, men from around the British Isles each with their own quirky interests.

We all have are little foibles and eccentricities, but you have to really be out of the ordinary to make the cut here.

Among those that have is someone who has travelled around the country photographing hedges, and Kevin Beresford who is president of the UK Roundabout Appreciation Society.

Measuring hills and collecting bricks: Five of the dullest men in Britain

There’s also a man who has visited all 2,548 railway stations in England, Scotland and Wales, as well as someone who has collected more than 300 vacuum cleaners.

There are some record breakers in amongst this unique bunch, too. One man secured his place in the book after becoming the world’s leading trig bagger. His aim is to visit all 6,100 trig pillars (a measuring shape used by the Ordnance Survey) in Britain - at the last count he has just 20 more to go.

Then there’s a man from the Cotswolds who has the world’s largest traffic cone collection. A couple of those deemed dull enough to make the book come from Yorkshire. Stan Hardwick, from Filey, is a lawnmower collector, while Neil Brittlebank, a former miner from East Ardsley, near Leeds, is a brick collector.

Neil, who once carried a brick all the way around Spurn Point when he went there for a family day, was among 12 people featured in the Dull Men’s Club 2015 calendar.

The new book has been pieced together by Leland Carlson, assistant vice president of the Dull Men’s Club. Leland formed the club, which strives to celebrate the ordinary, with his friend Grover Click while they were living in New York based around their shared interest in everyday things and the belief that it’s “OK to be dull.”

They set up a website as a bit of a joke and then people started to get in touch, so they produced a calendar which led to a flurry of interest and Leland being commissioned to write a book.

“I drove around the country and interviewed these guys and took some pictures,” he says. “It’s a tongue in cheek book, a fun book - it’s certainly been fun for me to write.”

As well as putting out messages for people to get in touch via Facebook and Twitter, he was put into contact with others from those he encountered. “There were a couple of guys who measure hills in Wales. There’s a difference between a hill and a mountain and they thought that some of the hills are actually mountains, so they hiked up there to measure them. Well, they told me about the trig bagger, that kind of thing happened quite a bit.”

Those featured in his book range from the founder of the Apostrophe Protection Society who is in his 90s, to a schoolboy who collects tax discs. “Some people say it celebrates British eccentricity, I like to think these guys help make the dull seem interesting,” says Leland.

In an age when so many people are fixated about their image and fitting in with the rest of the world, there is something wonderfully eccentric about these people.

At the same perhaps it also goes to show that there really is nowt so strange as folk.

Dull Men of Great Britain, published by Ebury Press, is out now priced £8.99.