| Charlie Connelly | |
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| Born | August 22, 1970 England London, England |
| Occupation | Author and broadcaster |
| Nationality | English |
| Period | 1998–present |
| Genres | Travel, sports |
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www.charlieconnelly.com |
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Charlie Connelly (born 22 August 1970, London, England) is an author and broadcaster. Connelly began his career as a writer of books relating to sporting events, most commonly football. His breakthrough 2002 book, Stamping Grounds, was his fifth, and followed the Liechtenstein national football team in their unsuccessful campaign to qualify for the 2002 FIFA World Cup. Connelly's 2004 follow-up, Attention All Shipping, which was his first to deviate from football as its topic, has been listed as a bestseller and selected as "Book Of The Week" by the UK radio station BBC Radio 4. In 2007, Connelly released his seventh book, In Search of Elvis, which again focused on travel and the impression left by entertainer Elvis Presley. Connelly's eighth book, And Did Those Feet: Walking Through 2000 Years Of British And Irish History, was published in December 2008 and was again a BBC Radio 4 "Book of the Week", in January 2009.
In addition to being a writer, Connelly also appears as a presenter on radio and television shows.[1]
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Connelly's writing exhibits a self-deprecating humour and love of eccentricity that echoes the style of Bill Bryson. Similarly, he shares with several other writers a fascination with subject-matter that had not previously been a feature of traditional travel writing. Rather than travelling round Ireland with a fridge (Hawks) or pedalling the route of the Tour de France (Moore), Connelly's early work focused on football, from Hackney Marshes to Sarajevo and most points in between. Stamping Grounds was Connelly's breakthrough, in which he follows the hapless Liechtenstein national football team through a disastrous if wholly predictable World Cup qualifying campaign. They lost all eight matches without scoring a single goal, but Connelly shows that it is the taking part that counts.
The bestselling Attention All Shipping (2004) was Connelly's first book not to take football as its central subject: again seeking out unusual destinations, he travels to each area mentioned in the shipping forecast made famous on BBC Radio 4. The radio station made Attention All Shipping their "Book of the Week", which helped propel the book to the top of the sales charts. In Search of Elvis was published in the UK in January 2007. In it, Connelly travels the globe examining the legacy of Elvis Presley, a journey that takes him to Uzbekistan, Finland, and Israel, as well as Memphis, Tupelo, and Las Vegas. The associated audiobook was narrated by the actor Julian Rhind-Tutt. In 2009 his next book And Did Those Feet followed great journeys from British and Irish history and was again a BBC Radio 4 "Book of the Week".
Connelly's work has also appeared in the Guardian, the Daily Telegraph, the Times, the Scotsman and the Herald; he was also a presenter on the BBC 1 Holiday programme and has lectured at the Royal Geographical Society. He co-presented the first three series of the BBC Radio 4 programme Traveller's Tree with Fi Glover. A former professional musician, Connelly plays the ukulele and lives in Ireland.
In August 2008 Attention All Shipping was voted the second greatest audiobook of all time in a public vote organised by The Guardian newspaper and Waterstone's bookshops, finishing behind The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.
In October 2010 Connelly mentioned on his Twitter feed that he was working on a novel.