Charlie Connelly

Photograph: Sarah Williams

All UK book publicity or event enquiries should be addressed to Rebecca Gray, Time Warner Books at rebecca.gray@twbg.co.uk

Charlie Connelly is a bestselling travel writer, award-winning broadcaster and the author of six previous books. His last book Attention All Shipping: A Journey Round The Shipping Forecast was a Radio 4 Book of the Week. His broadcast experience includes the Holiday programme and Radio 4's Travellers' Tree. Charlie is a former rock'n'roll tour manager, mortuary assistant and, somehow, marketing manager for The Complete Works of Lenin. In addition he has sung on Uzbek national television with the country's biggest pop star, is the official ambassador to England for a breakaway Lithuanian republic, has been hounded by the press after being falsely accused of intending to invade Rockall and been challenged to a fight by Ben Fogle. All by accident. He lives in London with his beloved Charlton Athletic.

His previous book Stamping Grounds: Liechtenstein's Quest for the World Cup was selected as a Sports Book of the Year in the Irish Times and the Independent.

Praise for ATTENTION ALL SHIPPING (Abacus, 2004)

"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 new travel 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 suitable intelligent and amusing guide around these coastal stations and provides an illuminating history of the forecast itself" Hampstead and Highgate Express

Praise for STAMPING GROUNDS (Little Brown 2002)

"Charlie Connelly's hilarious account of following the Liechtenstein national team should be swallowed whole in one sitting. Unlike the Liechtenstein team, Connelly hits the back of the net...he has a relaxed style and an intelligent eye for people." The Times

"Not only a quirky and enjoyable quasi-travel guide and odyssey but essential reading...Connelly has produced a damned good read...charming, off the wall and well worth a tenner." Sunday Times

Since his death in 1977 Elvis Presley has become an even greater cultural icon than when he was making records and consuming deep-fried peanut-butter-and-banana sandwiches.

IN SEARCH OF ELVIS sees Charlie Connelly set off on a journey to discover what makes Elvis so significant today and how his spirit is being kept alive more than half a century after he changed popular culture for ever. Charlie's odyssey takes him to Finland to meet an academic who performs Elvis songs in long-dead languages - while wearing a kilt; to Canada to find the orthodox Jewish Elvis tribute artist, Schmelvis; to Scotland to get fitted out with the Presley tartan; and culminates in Memphis, where Charlie stays at the Heartbreak Hotel (which is at the end of Lonely Street) and records a song in Sun Studio, the very room where Elvis arguably invented rock'n'roll.

Hilarious yet informative, and written with Charlie Connelly's customary wit and charm, this book will appeal to Elvis fans of all ages, plus the many travel-book aficionados who delighted in ATTENTION ALL SHIPPING.