Sheena Hastings: Nothing freakish about the need to be a bit different

Buying one wasn’t enough, and the childhood dream turned into an adult obsession, with a whole room of Mr Hull’s home in Doncaster dedicated to his collection of 571 Daleks in all sizes, including a life-size model.

His wife doesn’t sound too happy about the space given over to her husband’s hobby. He isn’t even a Doctor Who fan, but the aliens in the spare room have now earned him a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.

He described the news that he and his Daleks would be in the 2012 edition as “mindblowing” because the book has always been an annual purchase and the idea of actually featuring in it is a dream come true.

A chap in Greece owns a record 1,919 film projectors; the world’s largest wine flute, holding 5.7 gallons, resides in the Ukraine, and Clare Pearce of Peterborough has the distinction of having grown a 47in cucumber. The loudest purr by a domestic cat (67.7dB) was achieved by Smokey, owned by Lucinda Ruth Adams who lives, near Northampton.

Accessories used in encouraging this sleep-disturbing expression of contentment included a grooming brush, slices of ham and stroking by hand. These records are at what you might call the normal end of the Guinness spectrum.

Alongside them are such “well, I never!” feats as the curly-wurly 10ft 2in talons on the left hand and 9ft 7in talons on the right hand of one Christine Walton, who lives in Las Vegas. Assuming she can’t be a croupier, we can only wonder what kind of life she leads, presumably being unable to do everyday tasks like holding a pen, brushing her teeth, getting keys into a lock or peeling veg. Still, I expect she finds it very easy to scratch her back.

The woman with the longest fingernails in the world says she hates all cleaning, but still does it. I’m sure quite few people could be persuaded to buy a ticket to see exactly how this is achieved.

As always with the publication of a new edition, Guinness likes to highlight the weirdest and wackiest entries, although the book does also carry lists of human feats and firsts that are less spectacularly eye-catching.

Despite current doldrums in the publishing world, the GBWR is still one of the world’s biggest-selling copyright books (3m sales worldwide expected this year) and always tops the non-fiction charts at Christmas.

But is our interest in the body piercings, lung capacity and other physical quirks of strangers something freakish, feeding a hunger that was previously satisfied by circus sideshows?

“I absolutely disagree that it’s about an obsession with ‘freakishness’,” says Guinness spokesman Damian Field. “I think people find a lot of record feats inspiring, and what is being celebrated is people’s passions and difference, in a world where we are all encouraged to do the same thing, buy the same stuff and looks alike.

“The world’s most pierced man (Rolf Bucholz from Dortmond, Germany, who had 453 piercings at the last count) works in a call centre, and only got his first one done ten years ago. He’d been told all his life that he had to conform in so many ways, so this was his rebellion, but his workmates and friends already knew him and didn’t treat him differently because he decided to get more and more piercings.”

Field says Guinness don’t go out looking for record breakers; those interested in setting or breaking a record approach the publishers.

“The record has to be beatable, measurable, verifiable and interesting. We want records that capture the public imagination.”

A couple of records – for the heaviest and largest animals – were “rested” a few years ago because they might encourage owners to overfeed their pets. Some wannabes spend a great deal of energy dreaming up a new category to set a record at, and some world beaters fall into it accidentally – like the weightlifter whose gym regime included a breathing exercise blowing into a hot water bottle.

He was so good at it that his son encouraged him to get in touch with Guinness. A world record for blowing up and bursting a hot water bottle already existed, but British weightlifter Shaun Jones beat it by performing the feat in 6.52 seconds. Some countries are good at certain kinds of talents – for example the Irish love mass participation, and hold records for groups of people dressed as Smurfs and a crowd playing hopscotch.

Okay, maybe it’s not freakish but fun. Perhaps we enjoy it simply because we all have an inner Smurf.

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