Attention All Shipping, Charlie Connelly
Attention All Shipping, Charlie Connelly
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Attention All Shipping
A Journey Round the Shipping Forecast

Author: Charlie Connelly

Narrator: Charlie Connelly

Unabridged: 13 hr 41 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/31/2022


Synopsis

This 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.
Sitting at home listening to the shipping forecast can be a cosily reassuring experience. There's no danger of a westerly gale eight, veering southwesterly increasing nine later (visibility poor) gusting through your average suburban living room, blowing the Sunday papers all over the place and startling the cat.
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.

About Charlie Connelly

Charlie Connelly is the author of a string of books including And Did Those Feet: Walking Through 2000 Years of British and Irish History, Last Train to Hilversum: A Journey in Search of the Magic of Radio and Bring Me Sunshine: A Windswept, Rain-Soaked, Sun-Kissed, Snow-Capped Guide to Our Weather. Three of his books have been selected as BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week. Charlie is the literary correspondent for the New European, writes and presents the Coastal Stories podcast and performs his one-man show about the shipping forecast in venues across the country. He lives in Scotland where he misses Charlton Athletic terribly.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Anthony

The Shipping Forecast is a curious feature of British life. It belongs with “Britannia Rules the Waves”, “Kiss me Hardy”, “For those in Peril on the Sea”, “Tom Bowling” and “Hearts of Oak”. It taps into the complicated mythology of Britain as an island nation of seafarers. Not that the myth is entir......more

Goodreads review by Gerry

A magnificent read. Who would have thought that a book subtitled 'A Journey Round the Shipping Forecast' would provide such splendid reading. As a boy I always listened to the shipping forecast on the wireless (radio to the modern day person!) without ever knowing what Rockall, Finisterre, Dogger, f......more

Goodreads review by Libby

I just love this book. I should add that I have a strange love of the shipping forecast too... "Attention All Shipping" is a great idea (one that causes me to kick myself that I didnt get there first); Charlie Connelly travels to every shipping area in the forecast, along the way giving a bit of the......more


Quotes

An engaging and often very funny book in which a metropolitan man, buffeted by winds and high seas, travels from Norway's smallest island to Europe's westernmost pointing search of the reality behind the reassuring Radio 4 recital Sunday Times

A wonderfully eccentric study Observer

One of those simple yet brilliant ideas... A book that's as gentle and pleasing as the shipping forecast itself Daily Mail

If listening to 'Sailing By' to the bitter end every night is the surest sign of a Radio 4 addict, then buying Charlie Connelly's book runs it close Independent on Sunday

Armchair travelling will never be the same again Western Mail

He brings the shipping forecast to life, revealing the reality to be bizarre, quirky and fantastic Guernsey Press

Charlie Connelly proves to be a suitably intelligent and amusing guide around these coastal stations and provides an illuminating history of the forecast itself Hampstead and Highgate Express

Attention All Shipping went down a storm with this sea lover. It has great humour. It has great atmosphere... a very entertaining read and, believe me, you'll never see cod in the same way again Sunday Tribune

Connelly has a light, humorous touch Glasgow Evening Times

A fascinating and very funny book Weekly News