Charlie Connelly at Lismore Travel Writing Festival
With the very funny Charlie Connelly at the literary breakfast, Lismore Travel Writing Festival.
Despite a late night in Foley’s pub, I managed force myself out of bed to attend the Lismore Literary Breakfast. The guest speaker at that year’s festival was travel writer Charlie Connelly. Charlie has a reputation of being an entertaining speaker so I was looking forward to it. I was seated at a table that included great writers such as Paul Theroux and Simon Winchester. We all tucked into a delicious Irish breakfast before Charlie himself took the mike.
Charlie has written some great books including In Search of Elvis, Our Man in Hibernia and his best-known work, Attention All Shipping. His early work focused on a love we both share – football. His breakthrough book Stamping Grounds, focuses on Liechtenstein’s 2002 World Cup qualifying campaign.
During his talk, he related some very funny tales of Elvis impersonators he’d met from across the world. One was a memorable Finnish professor who translated Elvis songs into Latin and ancient Sumerian. He told Charlie that since there was no Sumerian for blue suede shoes, it would have to be leather sandals of sky blue!
He also entertained us with his story of Sealand, an abandoned World War 2 fort in the North Sea claiming to be an independent nation. The story was so unbelievable, it really deserves to be a book itself. He told us this “nation” granted visas, had a football team and had diplomatic relations with Germany! That must be on to to-do list of places to go!
I’m looking forward to reading more of Charlie’s books and hearing when he finally claims the tiny North Sea outpost of Rockhall for himself.
Books by Charlie Connelly
Attention All Shipping: A Journey Round the Shipping Forecast
In Search Of Elvis: A Journey to Find the Man Beneath the Jumpsuit
Our Man in Hibernia: Ireland, the Irish and Me
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