Men at Work: The Fairground Artists and Artisans of Orton & Spooner

Fairground art is rarely given a second thought, yet most people encounter it more often than, say, a work by Monet, Matisse or Rembrandt. Fairground artists are just ordinary people who never become household names, nor do they move abroad to enjoy better scenery and weather conditions. Yet like any art form there are those who practice it that become influential and stand out from their contemporaries for their ability to transcend the ordinary. This is the story of two such ordinary men with extraordinary talents, who worked for the well-known amusement ride manufacturer Orton and Spooner. Orton and Spooner of Burton-on-Trent became renowned for producing living wagons for fairground showmen and eventually all kinds of fairground devices. One of only a handful of such manufacturers in Britain, their workshops became a fantasy world of inspired engineering and breathtaking artwork. The company employed many artists, two of whom, father and son team Albert and Sid Howell, became regarded as the 20th Century's finest exponents of this very specialised art form. Now for the first time their remarkable story, and the story of those who worked with them, is told by someone who knew them both well. Sid Howell's son, Alan spent years researching the working lives of his father and grandfather and "Men at Work" is a real story about real people - a genuine tribute to the latent raw talent of the working class in this country. The book follows Albert's progress from his art school and apprenticeship in Bristol to his glory days at Orton and Spooner painting his vivid jungle scenes on the rounding boards of the great Scenic Railways of the 1900s. Sid too was a product of art school and his life is charted through the height of his career as chief artist at Orton and Spooner to his successful career as a commercial artist and industrial illustrator. And that's not all. Both men were accomplished artists in their private lives and produced many great works, many of which are in print for the first time.

About the Author :
Alan Sidney Howell was born in 1943 and lived for the majority of his life with his wife and children in the Staffordshire brewing town of Burton-upon-Trent. After taking early retirement in 1993 from a successful career as a finance manager with British Rail, he embarked on writing this extraordinary tribute to the many artistic talents of both his father Sid Howell and grandfather Albert Howell. Until his untimely death in January 2001, Alan spent several years with the help of friends, family and craftsmen from the Orton & Spooner era, compiling the life history of this father and son team, who were widely regarded as two of the most respected fairground artists of their generation.