by Chris Webber

Created on: February 11, 2009

The first thought upon picking up a copy of Round Ireland with a fridge is one of intrigue. With a title like that, resisting the urge to turn the book over and find out just what it's on about is nigh on impossible.

Flipping over, all becomes clearer. Slightly. Round Ireland with a fridge chronicles Hawks' unorthodox journey around the Emerald Isle, courtesy of a drunken bet. The bet: to hitch hike around the circumference of Ireland, with a fridge, within one calendar month. It is important to note that although the concept may seem like a work of fiction, all the events described actually happened.

Written in Hawks' trademark humorous style, which neither takes itself too seriously nor sinks into immaturity, Round Ireland manages to simultaneously make the journey seem a worthy challenge, but acknowledges the ridiculousness of it. The first chapters describe the apparent inspiration for Hawks' adventure, which revolved around a previous visit to Ireland where he passed a man attempting to hitch hike... with a fridge. "I had clearly arrived in a country", he explains, "where the qualification for eccentric' involved a great deal more than that to which I had become used".

From there onwards the journey around Ireland is one of constant, yet subtle jokes, seamlessly rolled into the first-person account of the various challenges to overcome, the surprises, and a considerable amount of time spent in pubs. Unlike many travel writers, Hawks avoids the use of diary entries and instead Round Ireland with a Fridge reads as a continuous account, the very nature of hitch hiking breaking the journey into ideally sized chapters. Each chapter effectively details a step in Hawks', and his fridge's, journey, as well as some dedicated to the more unusual events including attempts to secure a lift in a military helicopter and to marry a princess.

The tone of writing never ceases to provide humour, full of one-liners, irony and dry wit, similar in many ways to the style of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Indeed, a quote on the cover so accurately states the book to be "far too hilarious to read alone in a public place."

Possibly the most humorous aspect is that of the fridge's personification although initially seen as a hindrance and merely a condition of the bet, the fridge is treated as a travelling companion by Hawks (indeed, one of the pair has sex without the other knowing) and even becomes a focus of attention for the whole of Ireland. In fact,

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