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Snack Shots

A taste of Britain's highways and byways grubberies with 'candid camera' style photos and sample menus...

They are unique to the British Isles and have offered a haven to travellers, truckers and tourists for umpteen decades - and some have become legendary amongst seasoned drivers, the very byword for comfort food.
What and Who are they?

They are that most unusual of fast-food outlets - the roadside snack bars that abound on Britain's A and B road network feeding the nation on the move. They are 'bacon butty' beacons for the hungry on the A1, the A6, the A41, the A73 and the A5, as well as a string of other roads that are ignored by the hordes hurtling along our crowded motorways.

Many are temporary, small converted caravans and trailers while others are permanent fixtures and regular ports of call for long distance drivers and weary holidaymakers keen for a welcome break from their journeys.

The food can vary in quality from downright 'greasy spoon' grub - cholesterol busting fayre such as the 'all day breakfast' favourite of sizzling bacon, sausage and egg encased in a gloriously rebellious white bun - and other sundry fried stuffs to ham and salad rolls and oaten flapjacks, washed down with endless mugs of milky tea and coffee.

This fabulously - and wittily - illustrated book will feature snack bars across the land, from the moorlands of Devon and Cornwall to the Highlands of Scotland, from the flat plains of Lancashire to the lovely vales of Yorkshire, the hills and beauty of Wales with even a few tucked away in bleak suburban locations.

This is a hidden and hugely popular side to the British way of food that will horrify the 'obesity police' currently being empowered by the government and civil servants. But the entrepreneurs running them will perhaps be reluctant to abandon the griddle and the deep oil fryers so beloved of our army of lorry drivers that keep Britain's trade on the move.

In a series of fascinating photographs Snack Shots will capture the essence of snack bars and feature the folk and the menus that make up this rather special group who cater to the needs of the professional driver and the scenic tourist.

And we?ll feature a series of short essays about the folk who run them in all weathers, along with examples of the favourite food chosen by their customers.

The book is slated to be published in the Spring of 2007.