Available as Hardback, eBook, Downloadable audio, Paperback
A delightful and illuminating exploration of the human instinct to make things small, from the bestselling author of Just My Type and On the Map
A delightful, entertaining and illuminating investigation into our peculiar fascination with making things small, and what small things tell us about the world at large.
Simon Garfield reveals the secret histories of tiny Eiffel Towers, the truth about the flea circus, a doll’s house made for a Queen, eerie tableaux of crime scenes, miniature food, model villages and railways, and more.
Bringing together history, psychology, art and obsession, Garfield explores what fuels the strong appeal of miniature objects, and how controlling a tiny scaled-down world can give new perspectives, restore our sense of order in uncertain times, and, in unexpected ways, let us see our world in a whole new light.
In Miniature takes a big look at small things and teaches us that there is greatness in the diminutive.
“A rare treat, convivial and smart and brimming with intrigue. Simon Garfield excavates the curiouser of small worlds where not all is as it seems - obscure and wondrous, a bit bonkers and totally fascinating, and just my cup of tea”
Keggie Carew, Author Of Dadland
See more reviews
“Garfield’s book is thrilling, touching and very, very funny”
Nina Stibbe
“This intriguing study of our urge to make scale models is full of bizarre stories and poignant insight … engaging and exuberant … The moral seems to be that we’re all small, relatively speaking, which is perhaps why In Miniature is not only highly entertaining; it is also moving”
observer
“If you are someone who appreciates the quirkier byways of human endeavour, there’s plenty to surprise and delight in this compendium”
the Times
“Fascinating and often funny … As a (scaled-down) book, In Miniature is a well-built, highly polished entity. It is full of evocative sentences [and] amusing drive-by thwacks … But what he also shows in abundance is the sympathetic understanding of the needs and travails of “ordinary” people that lit up his previous books”
guardian
Simon Garfield
Simon Garfield is the author of a number of acclaimed books of non-fiction including A Notable Woman (as editor), To the Letter, On the Map, Just My Type and Mauve. His study of AIDS in Britain, The End of Innocence, won the Somerset Maugham Award. simongarfield.com
Small world: Why we love tiny things
Simon Garfield was in the Observer at the weekend, writing about making a version of himself small enough to hold in his hand, and the endless fascination of all things miniature: those worlds within worlds, from toy towns to dolls houses and beyond.
Observer
“What is going on in our world that can possibly explain such a fervent desire to shrink it?”
Simon Garfield considers the compulsion towards making miniatures in a Guardian longread about little things.
Guardian
