Overview
Connelly's writing exhibits a self-deprecating humour and love of eccentricity that echoes the style of Bill Bryson. Similarly, he shares with several other writers a fascination with subject-matter that had not previously been a feature of traditional travel writing. Rather than travelling round Ireland with a fridge (Hawks) or pedalling the route of the Tour de France (Moore), Connelly's early work focused on football, from Hackney Marshes to Sarajevo and most points in between. Stamping Grounds was Connelly's breakthrough, in which he follows the hapless Liechtenstein national football team through a disastrous if wholly predictable World Cup qualifying campaign. They lost all eight matches without scoring a single goal, but Connelly shows that it is the taking part that counts.
The bestselling Attention All Shipping (2004) was Connelly's first book not to take football as its central subject: again seeking out unusual destinations, he travels to each area mentioned in the shipping forecast made famous on BBC Radio 4. The radio station made Attention All Shipping their "Book of the Week", which helped propel the book to the top of the sales charts. In Search of Elvis was published in the UK in January 2007. In it, Connelly travels the globe examining the legacy of Elvis Presley, a journey that takes him to Uzbekistan, Finland, and Israel, as well as Memphis, Tupelo, and Las Vegas. The associated audiobook was narrated by the actor Julian Rhind-Tutt. In 2009 his next book And Did Those Feet followed great journeys from British and Irish history and was again a BBC Radio 4 "Book of the Week" narrated by Martin Freeman.
Connelly's work has also appeared in the Guardian, the Daily Telegraph, the Times, the Scotsman and the Herald; he was also a presenter on the BBC 1 Holiday programme and has lectured at the Royal Geographical Society. He co-presented the first three series of the BBC Radio 4 programme Traveller's Tree with Fi Glover and has appeared on Excess Baggage and Loose Ends. A former professional musician, Connelly plays the ukulele and lives in Ireland.
In August 2008 Attention All Shipping was voted the second greatest audiobook of all time in a public vote organised by The Guardian newspaper and Waterstone's bookshops, finishing behind The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.
In October 2010 Connelly mentioned on his Twitter feed that he was working on a novel.
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