Rating: 4/5
Reviewed by: Ashley Frieze
Buy it now.

Written by Tony Hawks... no, not the championship skateboarder, that's Tony Hawk. This Tony Hawks is a panel-show regular, comedy writer and was most notably remembered for his one-hit-wonder record "Stutter Rap" with his band "Morris Minor and the Majors".

I'll admit that this book comes in second place to "Are You Dave Gorman", but only just. This is a story with a similar theme to AYDG; someone gets drunk and makes a bet which involves him going all over the place just to prove a point. In this case, following the author telling some friends about a chap he once saw attempting to Hitch Hike in Ireland with a fridge in tow, he wakes up to find he's drunkenly bet that he could get around the entire coastline of the country doing the same thing. If he achieves this end, he can win the princely sum of £100.

With the assistance of a national DJ keeping the nation informed of his progress and prompting people to help him, and, more importantly, hoards of Irish and exiled-Britishers doing their best to transport, accommodate, feed and force alcohol upon the intrepid explorer, Mr Hawks discovers a side to Ireland which will never appear in any brochures.

The written style of the author, stand-up comedian and comedy-writer that he is, is exceedingly readable and frequently funny. There's no doubt that he is aware of how stupid the whole exercise was. Yet, everyone he met treated him with the greatest respect. Somehow the whole pointlessness of his task brought the best out in people.

At the end of the day, there would have been no story without the kindness of everyone mentioned in the book. It's a funny book and heart-warming at the same time. There are a lot of people out there who are prepared to share their lives, at least temporarily, with a stranger... if he's got a fridge in tow.

You will probably never find another book which describes, in detail, the logistics of surfing with a fridge. For this reason alone, it's probably worth a read.

22 February 2002
Ashley Frieze