Showing results by author "Charlie Connelly" in All Categories

Yet familiar though the sea areas are by name, few people give much thought to where they are or what they contain. In Attention All Shipping, Charlie Connelly wittily explores the places behind the voice, those mysterious regions whose names seem often to bear no relation to conventional geography. Armchair travel will never be the same again.

The solemn, rhythmic intonation of the shipping forecast on BBC radio is as familiar as the sound of Big Ben chiming the hour. Since its first broadcast in the 1920s, it has inspired poems, songs, and novels, in addition to its intended objective of warning generations of seafarers of impending storms and gales. In Attention All Shipping, Charlie Connelly wittily explores the places behind the voice, those mysterious regions whose names seem often to bear no relation to conventional geography.

The landscape of the British Isles is filled with history, much of which we miss as it flashes past the car window. Do we even realise that we're following the same path as the Tolpuddle Martyrs, or that we're driving past the exact spot where King Harold was killed, shot through the eye with an arrow? As a lover of both history and the British countryside, Charlie Connelly decided to rectify this, and set out on a series of walks that recreate famous historical journeys. En route he retells the story of the original trip while discovering who and what now inhabit these iconic routes.

A bulwark against invasion, a conduit for exchange and a challenge to be conquered, the English Channel has always been many things to many people. Today it's the busiest shipping lane in the world and hosts more than 30 million passenger crossings every year but this sliver of choppy brine, just 21 miles wide at its narrowest point, represents much more than a conductor of goods and people.  

Best-selling author Charlie Connelly returns with a First World War memoir of his great uncle, Edward Connelly, who was an ordinary boy sent to fight in a war the likes of which the world had never seen. But this is not just his story; it is the story of all the young forgotten soldiers who fought and bravely died for their country. The Forgotten Soldier tells the story of Private Edward Connelly, aged 19, killed in the First World War a week before the Armistice and immediately forgotten, even, it seems, by his own family.

Despite the all-pervading influence of television an astonishing 90 percent of people in Britain still listen to the radio, clocking up over a billion hours of listening between us every week. In Last Train to Hilversum Charlie Connelly explores the place of radio in our world, taking stock of the history of the medium and celebrating its role as one of the very few genuinely shared national experiences. 

In Search of Elvis sees Charlie Connelly set off on a journey to discover what makes Elvis so significant today, more than half a century after he changed popular culture forever. Charlie's odyssey takes him to Finland to meet an academic who performs Elvis songs in long-dead languages while wearing a kilt, and to Canada to find Schmelvis, an Orthodox Jewish Elvis tribute artist. It culminates in Memphis, where Charlie stays at the Heartbreak Hotel and records a song in Sun Studio.

We talk about the weather a lot. It exasperates, confounds, and on occasion delights us. Our national conversation is dominated by the weather, but how much do we really know about it? Charlie Connelly sets off on the trail of our island obsession: He breezes through the lives of meteorological eccentrics, geniuses, rainmakers, and cloud-busters and brings vividly to life great weather events from history.

Great European Lives with Charlie Connelly is brought to you by the award-winning newspaper, The New European. It delves into the lives of some of the greatest, and sometimes forgotten, Europeans ever lived. Read more from Charlie each week by subscribing to The New European at http://theneweuropean.co.uk/subscribe

Great stories from around the coasts of Britain and Ireland brought to you by Charlie Connelly, author of the bestselling 'Attention All Shipping: A Journey Round The Shipping Forecast'. Take fifteen minutes out of your day for a true maritime tale of the heroic, disastrous, startling, hilarious, mysterious, tragic or just plain WTF. "Charming...with the soothing sound of lapping waves in the background Connelly captivates with maritime tales from the past decades and centuries. It's simple but effective storytelling." Irish Examiner "Relax and let author Charlie Connelly’s soothing tones ...