Tom Fort is a writer, and an angler who aspires to be handy. In 2018, his daughter-in-law, Sharona, took over their local hardware shop, a century old place called Heath and Watkins. While she, as the handy-woman of the family, was the driving force behind it, the rest of the family got involved in some capacity, and the author got to be a part of the day to day working of a village hardware shop.
He writes about the unique place that hardware shops occupy with their supply of tools for all purposes, paint, gardening equipment, seeds, manure and so on. It is a place that customers go to, and wander around, looking at and buying equipment, seeing in their mind's eye all the changes that they want to make to their homes, kitchens and gardens...a lot of the purchases may end up going unused, but that's not the point. The hardware shop serves as a nurturer of dreams as long as the customer is in there.
Fort begins his narrative with a brief history of the shop, which is followed by an account of all the changes and modifications that had to be made once his family took over. Things were going well, when covid hit, and everything was shut down. But hardware shops were deemed essential businesses, so Heath and Watkins stayed open.
The author writes vividly about that strange time in all our lives. Most of us stayed home, and our lives slowed down. But people who ran essential businesses were run off their feet, barely able to meet demand, waiting desperately for supplies, and occasionally having to ration items.
The account of life in this particular shop is set in the broader context of hardware shops in general. Fort goes into the history of hardware shops, which used to be called ironmongers. He writes about the many ordinary, everyday items that are sold in hardware shops that have fascinating stories behind them, (like the rivets, trivets, and galvanised buckets in the title), the culture of DIY, the books, magazines, and TV shows that have sprung up around it, and so much more.
I found the narrative thoroughly absorbing, and that is due, as much to the skill of the writer as it is to the subject matter. This is a charming book.