Customer Reviews

Round Ireland with a Fridge

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(33)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This book doesn't claim to be anything but what it is: a rollicking good time. Hawks has detailed his misadventures with a fridge whilst traipsing around the Green Isle. It makes for a fun time, it really does.

The premise is so absurd it has to be real: the author makes a bet with a mate in the midst of a party... that he attempt to take a fridge all the way around the country of Ireland - and do it in 30 days or less. Hawks, not being of right mind, agrees. Then he gets sober and realizes the enormity of this £100 bet. The first hilarious mis-step in the adventure is that the fridge he bought for the trek cost him roughly what the bet was for.

From there things get better (or worse, if you're Hawks) and a great time begins. The book doesn't just reflect Hawks' strange experiences whilst hitching with a compact fridge - it also shows the generous and good-natured heart of the Irish.

I bought this book for my trans-atlantic flight home and it keep me fully entertained for the entire 8 hours. This isn't a challenging read, but it's darn good fun all the same. I give it a recommend.

I picked up this book on a trip to London based soley on its cover, putting down a copy of another travel book by Bill Bryson. It seemed kind of dumb, but potentially funny. I was very pleased to find that this book was well-written with sharp humour, insight, and rich descriptions of the author's travels around Ireland with a small dormitory-style refrigerator. It did turn out to be quite a stupid idea, but that's what makes the book an enjoyable read; there's really nowhere to go but up from that point. The fridge goes surfing, gets blessed by a nun, and travels with a horse while Tony makes numerous friends along the way.

If you like the British flair in the novels of Nick Horby and Helen Fielding and enjoy travel writing, you should enjoy this book as well.

I had no idea what a "laugh out loud" book this would be! Imagine, taking someone up on a bet to hitchhike around Ireland with a dorm-sized fridge, then writing a book about your exploits of fulfilling the terms of the bet. Tony Hawks did it, and here we have the fruits of his efforts.

From the beginning, he admits that it's a frivolous idea....but I think that's what makes it that much more interesting. In 30 days, Tony works his way around the perimeter of Ireland with the fridge on a dolly. We get to read of his encounters with various Irish, English and Americans who help him reach his goal. We see how the fridge becomes more of a celebrity than Tony (an ego-reducing reality!) and how people banded together behind this crazy idea.

I have traveled extensively in Ireland, and while some of the incidents and reactions may seem a bit over the top or overly charitable, I can believe that they happened. I haven't read a travelogue that more fully captures the true heart, spirit and imagination of Ireland better than this.

Bravo to Tony for completing the task...and for letting us accompany him on his journey.

This is a book that will have you laughing out loud, as you read of Tony's varied stories of his travels around Ireland.

It is a purely light-hearted and entertaining read, yet it shows the generosity and love of life that the Irish have.

Written in a chatty way, you find yourself cringeing at some of the antics that he gets up to, such as surfing with the fridge, or sleeping in a dog kennel.

This is a book you will definitely not want to put down, but at the same time, you don't want it to finish!

I don't normally read travel books, but my husband is an avid devourer of same, and so when I gave him this as a gift, I was curious. He would read a few pages and then laugh. A lot. Out loud. I wondered what on earth could be so funny in a travel book. I had never read a book which made me laugh out loud. So after he had finished, I began reading the book.

I just couldn't put it down. It was hilarious, right from the ridiculous premise where the author agreed to a drunken bet to hitch-hike round Ireland with a fridge as a travelling companion. He meets a quite a few eccentric characters along the way, none of whom I knew (at least I don't think so, but you can never be quite sure. Nearly everyone in Ireland knows someone who's a cousin of someone else's cousin or brother, or aunt... you get the idea.)

My favourite line has got to be when asking for directions, the author got the reply, "You can't get there from here."

It's so funny because it's true, people do say that, I'm a culprit myself.

How did he manage it? Did people really let the madman with a fridge get into their cars and their lives? Read the book and find out, you won't be disappointed.

You'll be laughing out loud too.

Reviewed by Annette Gisby, author of Silent Screams

After a heavy alcohol-fuelled session at a party, English comedian Tony Hawks wakes up to find that he has entered into a bet to hitchhike around the coast of Ireland in the company of a fridge. Not a man to welch on his bets he sets off to do precisely that and manages to write us a hilarious book detailing the experience.

The people of Ireland respond to the idea of this English lunatic pulling this stunt as if it's an excellent proposal and pitch in to help Tony on his way with madcap enthusiasm. By car, truck and van, Tony and his fridge progress around the coast; on the way having the fridge christened, blessed, named and adopted as well as entering into a batchelor competition. The passing through of Tony and his fridge becomes an event in many areas and he achieves a cult following as "Fridge-man".

If you want to read a travelogue with a difference you'd be hard-pressed to find one as bizarre and enjoyable as this which serves to warm the reader's heart to Ireland, the Irish, Tony and free-willed kitchen appliances everywhere. Good craic.

Now that I finished reading Round Ireland with a Fridge, I miss it. I miss hanging out with Tony Hawks, the English comedian dubbed Fridge Man, and all the people of Ireland who befriended him along the way.
His mission was an effort to win a 100 pound bet (less than the cost of the Fridge)placed while under the influence of an inebriant.
The actual accomplishment of the journey is neither the point nor does it generate much suspense as it nears.
Instead the story is a first person account of those travels, experiences, the people, and Tony's "everyman" reactions to it all.
At one point, if I were Fridge Man finally meeting Gerry Ryan, the radio show host who championed the cause, I would have hugged and blubbered all over the man in appreciation.
For Ryan seems the unsung hero who alerted the airways calling the people of Ireland to the rescue and abatement of the young man carting a white appliance cube through their countryside.
Although the initial purpose of the bet and the trip itself is pure absurdity, what the author and the book's readers come away with is a genuine serving of fun and companionship. One other plus for the reader. The only one getting wet is Tony.

I loved this book from the start! I first read the book shortly after my first trip to Ireland. While my trip did not involve a kitchen appliance, we kept to same kind of 'go where the road takes us' kind of philosophy. I have given this book as a gift a number of times and every friend I've given it to has adored it. People who can laugh at themselves and make you laugh right along are a rare and wonderful breed. Wouldn't it be lovely to find and appreciate the absurd all the time?

This very amusing book can be summarized as follows: British comedian gets sloshed at party, makes drunken wager that he can hitchhike around the circumference of Ireland with a refrigerator within one calendar month, wakes up, agrees to follow through on drunken wager, wacky antics ensue. Given that the mini-fridge with which to fulfill the bet costs £130, and the bet is for £100, it’s becomes clear that the book is not so much about winning the bet as it is about how the bet is won. It’s certainly not meant to be any kind of guide to Ireland. If anything, it’s a guide to embracing actions that have no point, to every now and then live outside the sensible boundaries we construct in out lives.

Hawks strikes it lucky at the very beginning, as his silly bet is championed by a RTE2 (Irish national radio station) radio personality, giving him instant notoriety, which eases his path around Ireland. Hawks’ comedian background enables him to kind-heartedly poke fun at everything and everyone he encounters, with large doses of self-depreciation mixed in. He’s constantly amazed at the generous and warm receptions he receives throughout the country, and finds something positive in almost everyone and every place he visits (buoyed no doubt by the numerous free meals and beds bestowed upon him). The book is a silly good time, and the embodiment of easy reading. Toward the end the quirky characters he meets on the road and in bars start to run together a little, and it might have benefited from being fifty pages less or so. But still, it’s not every day you can read about a fridge surfing, a fridge baptizing, a fridge blessing, a fridge party (with requisite New Order cover band),… well, you’ll have to read it to believe it.

Many reviews here have critisised this book as being a rubbish travel book. This is not a travel book and was never intended to be a travel book. It is simply the story of a man who travelled around Ireland with a fridge - end of story. I am Irish and remember when all this happened - I remember listening in to the radio show every day to hear what he was up to and remember his arrival to Dublin when nobody came out to see him. It is therefore interesting to read his actual story and see what was really happening behind his story on the radio. But it's not a travel book!