I feel very lucky to have been sent a copy of this book by a BookCrosser and apologise for not having read it sooner. Although some of the sporting references went straight over my head, I enjoyed this travel book very much. Connelly resolves to visit each area covered by the UK's Shipping News over the course of a year and this book is his account of his travels. Beginning with Viking, he works his way right through to South-east Iceland although he does rather fudge Trafalgar. His descriptions of his adventures (and mis-adventures) are amusing and he provides information on the geography and history for each area he visits. All in all a very enjoyable and educational read. ( )

Occasionally amusing personal tale of brief visits to places in the shipping forecast. He clearly has a knack of engaging with people and some of their stories are interesting. ( )

Brilliantly funny story of a man's journey around all the areas of the shipping forecast. Dangerous to read on public transport as not only will you laugh like a loon, you will also have to desperately curb the impulse to turn to the stranger next to you and read bits of it to them. ( )

The tales of Charlie Connelly's travels around the 31 Shipping Forecast areas were, in general, entertaining and enlightening. I enjoyed his visit to Utsire immensely, and the Isles of Scilly (area Sole), Cromer (area Humber) and Fair Isle were other highlights, combining insights into the histories of the areas with personal observations of and reflections on where he stayed. However, especially towards the end of the book, it seemed to be rather more focussed on his ineptitude. He seemed not to have grasped the notion of checking whether he would be able to get to his destination in the time he'd given himself, and would then spend several pages wailing about it. Area Malin was allotted a paltry four pages in which he told a story of how the alarm in his hotel had gone off, and he spent his entire time on Lundy feeling very sorry for himself because he'd done the crossing on a very rough day. Instead of spending more time there, he sat in the pub and made himself feel more ill before going back.

So not a perfect travelogue by any means, but I did learn a few interesting snippets and it's certainly inspired me to visit some of the places he visited on his meanderings. ( )

Doesn't get much better than this - what could be more entertaining than a journey round the shipping forecast!! ( )