Book review: Charlie Connolly, Attention All Shipping

If you suffer like me from interminable bouts of Insomnia (usually when there’s an early start the next morning), the lilting melody of “sailing by” and the shipping forecast that follows it on Radio 4 denotes the fact that it’s almost 1 o’clock in the morning. If you’re still awake at such hour you may have given half a thought to what those obtuse place names that are called out to weary fisherman actually mean. Where exactly is Lundy? What are you supposed to do with a Dogger Bank?.

Charlie Connolly has thought these same thoughts and more. He’s actually done a whole trip around the shipping areas of the uk, to find out what’s the deal with this broadcasting institution.

Starting out from his home in Greenwich, Charlie trawls his way clockwise around the country and also popping over to such glamorous locales as North Utsire, (a bleak windswept isle), the independent and paranoid state of Sealand “we’ve had attacks on our sovereignty!” claims the prince. Which is more surprising, as the state is an old WW2 barrage 10 miles off the coast of Southend.

Through the course of his travels, the highlights are the small stories of how the sea has influenced the lives of those living at it’s edge or who’s living depended on it. Lovely tales abound of outstanding bravery from lifeboat men, eccentric lighthouse keepers and piracy on the high seas.