It has to be said, roundabout appreciation isn’t exactly the most commonplace of interests.
Still, that hasn’t stopped what’s at best a negligible feature of the road, and at worst a stressful blight on journeys for the rest of us, being a constant source of joy and amazement for one man.
Kevin Beresford is the president and founder of the UK Roundabout Appreciation Society, and has previously been dubbed by the press as ‘Britain’s dullest man’.
He’s among a dreary dozen that were selected to be the faces of this year’s Dull Men of Great Britain Pin Up Calendar, alongside other blokes whose hobbies include milk bottle-top collecting and drain spotting.
The 62-year old loves roundabouts so much that he’s created several calendars, including the best-selling ‘Roundabouts of Redditch’ which has, to date, sold over 100,000 copies worldwide, and set up his own website, roundaboutsofbritain.com.
His latest calendar, the 2016 Roundabouts of the World, has been recently been published, and he’s hoping it'll be his greatest hit yet after gathering a legion of likeminded fans across the world.
Despite what initially seems like the dreariest of interests, Kevin has risen to become the undisputed “Lord of the Rings” in his own words, so Car Keys caught up with him to see if he’s as dull as he claims.
Car Keys: Hi Kevin! You’ve gotten quite a bit of press attention lately, how’s that going for you?
That’s mainly with the Dull Men’s thing. They’ve been on the One Show, and they got all of them on except me, I was gutted. They said I was over-exposed, can you believe it?
CK: Well, we’ve spotted quite a few headlines about you. Some have said quite nasty things like “Is this Britain’s dullest man?” - how did you take that?
I’m quite proud to be dull. It’s quite trendy now, dull is the new black.
My calendars go on people’s walls, so I do envision myself as a kind of artist. I do all the graphics in those calendars, and artists over the years have always focused on the mundane.
For instance, you have Tracey Emin’s unmade bed, or Andy Warhol’s can of Campbell’s soup. Even Van Gogh would just paint a pipe on a chair. Some people would call that dull or boring, but it’s still a work of art and that’s the way I see it.
CK: Is that what appeals to you about roundabouts, that they’re sort of like canvasses?
They are indeed, and a lot of the local councils are employing local artists to design sculptures for them. A lot of roundabouts reflect what’s going on in the area or the heritage and industry of the area and it’s the aesthetic quality of a roundabout that appeals to me.
CK: What’s your idea of the perfect roundabout? Or conversely, a bad roundabout?
Sometimes you might get something like the Magic Roundabout in Swindon, now that’s a real adrenaline rush. It’s an island packed with testosterone!
CK: We’ve certainly never heard it described like that before…
It’s a real rollercoaster of a roundabout, and I’ve decided to go on daytrips just to drive on it. It’s not aesthetically pleasing, but some of our Society members like that kind of thing. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I always say there’s no such thing as a bad roundabout.
CK: How many members of the society do you have?
We have a close-knit membership in Redditch of 30, but we have roundabout enthusiasts from around the world and they send us their favourite roundabouts.
That’s the beauty of a roundabout as opposed to traffic lights. There’s literally nothing more expressive than a roundabout, that’s just the way it goes.
I’ve seen sculptures, fountains, laser light shows, cinemas, trains, boats, planes, windmills and duck ponds. This year’s Roundabout of the Year is in Tewkesbury, where there’s a Battle of Tewkesbury re-enactment there.
It just goes to show what you can do with a roundabout and why people find them so special. Traffic lights take a lot of maintenance, but with a roundabout most of the time all you have to do is mow the lawn. I always say that there’s no green in traffic lights, only red.
CK: It’s obviously not the most common of interests, how do people react when you tell them about it?
It’s funny, really. When my family and friends go on holiday they now sort of see roundabouts in a different light and they take photographs for me. I have a friend who’s just come back from Cuba and who sent me some lovely pictures from Havana.
That’s my goal, if you like, to make people look at these roundabouts that have always been there and appreciate what they have.
CK: So are you aiming to extend the UK Roundabout Appreciation Society into a World Society?
Well, that’s already happening and people around the world are cottoning on. France have some 30,000 roundabouts. They’re the real movers and shakers in the roundabout world. Spain, too, have some good ones.
It’s an easy hobby to have. All you need is a camera, maybe a pen and paper and I suppose that an anorak helps as well!
CK: Do you think that Americans, famous for their confusion over roundabouts, are missing out?
People from America keep referring me to that Simpsons episode where they go to London and get stuck going round and round the roundabout for ages and ages. They’re not easy to negotiate with, but they’ll see the light eventually, and they’re trying to get more states to bring them in.
There’s massive research being done in America, which is ironically where roundabouts were first invented in 1903, which shows that you can cut 40 per cent in fuel costs wherever you install a roundabout.
There’s also a 90 per cent reduction in road fatalities wherever there’s a roundabout instead of traffic lights.
CK: Just for a bit of fun, you can drive any car and go anywhere in the world? What do you choose and where do you take it?
E-Type Jag, showing my age there. I suppose I’d go to Milton Keynes, there’s more roundabouts there than anywhere else in the world. The only thing that I’ve got against Milton Keynes is that there’s more quantity as opposed to quality, I feel.
CK: Thanks, Kevin!
