Last Train To Hilversum

by Charlie Connelly

Despite the all-pervading influence of television an astonishing ninety per cent of people in Britain still listen to the radio, clocking up over a billion hours of listening between us every week. It's a background to all our lives: we wake up to our clock radios, we have the radio on in the kitchen as we make the tea, it's on at our workplaces and in our cars. Most of our lives can be measured in kilohertz.
In Last Train To Hilversum Charlie Connelly explores the place of radio in our world, taking stock of the history of the medium and celebrating its role as one of the very few genuinely shared national experiences. He explores some of the geniuses, crackpots and charlatans who helped to give us the radio we know today, talks to some of our great contemporary broadcasters from Corrie Corfield to Cerys Matthews, visits Britain's smallest commercial station and amplifies the voices, personalities and programmes that have helped to form who we are as individuals and as a nation.
Part nostalgic reverie, part social history, part travelogue, Last Train To Hilversum is Connelly's love letter to radio, exploring our relationship with the medium from its earliest days to the present in a journey from the wireless to wireless.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Travel

336 pages, Hardcover

First published January 24, 2019

About the author

Charlie Connelly (born 22 August 1970, London, England) is an author of popular non-fiction books. In addition to being a writer, Connelly also appears as a presenter on radio and television shows.

Charlie Connelly is a bestselling author and award-winning broadcaster. His many books include Attention All Shipping: A Journey Round The Shipping Forecast, In Search of Elvis: A Journey To Find The Man Beneath The Jumpsuit and Our Man In Hibernia: Ireland, The Irish And Me. Three of his books have featured as Radio 4′s Book of the Week read by Martin Freeman, Stephen Mangan and Tom Goodman-Hill. Charlie was also a popular presenter on the BBC1 Holiday programme and co-presented the first three series of BBC Radio 4′s Traveller’s Tree with Fi Glover.
His book Gilbert: The Last Years of WG Grace was shortlisted for the 2016 MCC/Cricket Society Book of the Year. The book he wrote with his friend Bernard Sumner, Chapter And Verse: New Order, Joy Division And Me was shortlisted for Book of the Year at the NME Awards, while his most recent co-writing project, Winner: A Racing Life with the champion jockey AP McCoy is shortlisted for Sports Autobiography of the Year.
The audio version of Attention All Shipping came second in a public vote to find the greatest audiobook of all time organised by Waterstone’s and The Guardian. Romeo and Juliet was third, which Charlie takes as official confirmation that he’s better than Shakespeare.

Reviews

[Sally Parker · Rating 4 out of 5]

This fascinating book delves into the history of the development of broadcast radio , travelling back to the late 19th and early 20th century in the search of the pioneers of this broadcast medium with which we are all so familiar today. The birth and growth of the British Broadcasting Corporation is described in great detail, full of interesting characters and amusing anecdotes. Really great chapters about sports broadcasting and the arrival of pirate radio. I can recommend this book to anyone interested in this medium that forms the background, whether in music or speech, to our daily lives.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is really a book about the BBC. It needed a better editor

The subject matter here is right up my alley, and where there are some interesting diversions, most of the book it about the BBC. About 2/3 through it became a chore and I started skipping parts. Would I recommend it? Possibly, but with the caveats stated in the title of this review.

[Carolyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love radio. I have it on all the time at home - Good Morning Scotland in the morning, Get it On in the evening, Craig Charles’ 6 Music Show on Saturday nights. It’s part of my life in a way that telly rarely is, so I was happy to pick up this book, described as “A journey in search of the magic of radio”.

Its focus is the small Dutch town of Hilversum, which appeared on the waveband displays of old FM/AM/MW radios along with Brussels, Toulouse, Stavanger and many other places. The town hosts almost all of the Netherlands’ broadcasting institutions, and Connelly visits as part of his search for the heart of radio. Elsewhere in the book, he meets the owners of the voices who routinely read the Shipping Forecast and football results, and entertain us on a Sunday morning. In between, he tells the story of the start of radio, from Marconi to Reith, and lesser-known names like Leonard Plugge.

He recounts essential moments in the history of broadcasting, meets the head of the smallest commercial radio station in the country and examines the art of football commentary. It all bowls along nicely and is genuinely interesting, but I couldn’t help feeling the book lacked a central thread to hold it together. Like a lot of radio, it was fascinating, but didn’t seem clear on its actual point.

[Sheryl Garratt · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well-researched and beautifully written love letter to radio, a history of the medium packed with great anecdotes that had me constantly putting the book down to find some of the classic clips Connelly mentions. A nightingale singing along to a cello in a Surrey garden, for instance, or a very drunk Lieutenant-Commander Thomas Woodrooffe commentating on the lighting of the fleet that ended a long week of celebrations after George VI's coronation in 1937. There are plenty of laugh out loud moments here, such as the dirtiest joke ever told on radio (in 1935, at least), as well as some breath-taking examples of early BBC sexism. Connelly visits the smallest radio station in the UK, takes us behind the scenes of some of his favourite BBC shows, packs in some interesting interviews, and manages a final chapter that moved me to tears. If radio was ever an important part of your life, this is a book to treasure.

[WinterGirl83 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really lovely book about radio. I too grew up listening to shortwave with the names on the dial, those magical places that produced music and talk between the static. I still love radio today and am just getting back into shortwave listening as well as FM, MW (AM) and LW. Also a licensed radio ham but shortwave was my first love thanks to my Dad.

Whether you’re a fellow SWL or just someone with a vague interest in radio I think you’ll enjoy Charlie’s book.

[Smathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must read book for anyone like me who has the radio on morning, noon and night at home, in the car, anywhere. Pirate radio stations, Charlotte Green, a cellist in duet with a nightingale, the shipping forecast and Sailing By - every notable event and broadcaster is mentioned, and technological developments in radio broadcasting are woven in between surprising and humorous anecdotes. I like this book so much I won’t lend it to anyone in case I don’t get it back.

[Laura Macdonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

And enjoyable book about the history of radio, but quite heavy on BBC radio and I felt this book could have been much more... I particularly enjoyed the chapter on the challenges of establishing a small, local, independent radio station in a remote location, but felt there should have been more about local independent radio, for example. Radio Luxembourg (a major part in my childhood) was barely mentioned, and topics such as amateur radio and numbers stations not at all.

[M G · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book. As someone with an interest in the technology of radio; an avid listener to John Peel's program for many year's; Goons fan; Billy Cotton band show "Where's me shirt!"; Family Favourites; the Shipping Forecast;and Hilversum on the radio dial. Just found the book dull, couldn't finish it

[Jonny Brick · Rating 4 out of 5]

The hardback had eight awful typos, which I imagine the paperback has cleaned up. There's a great mix of contemporary DJs and voices - Cerys, Dotun, Charlotte, Corrie - and older figures like Marconi, Lord Reith and the undersung Sheila Borrett. The author has a tendency for prolixity, especially in description, but his love of the medium is evident on every page.

[Lucy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating voyage on the airwaves

I’d never previously appreciated the huge revolution that the development of radio wrought. Very entertainingly written. Highly recommended even if you had no previous interest in the history of radio.

[Tobias · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun and engaging canter through the history of radio, covering its inception through to the internet age, and lots of nice little digressions in-between. Genuinely funny in places, it also has sufficient gravitas to be a 'serious' book too. Worth a read.

[David Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Video didn’t kill the radio star. This book was written for me and anyone else who loves radio. It starts at the beginning.

[Ipswichblade · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read a few Charlie Connelly and he always writes an interesting book. This is no exception and well worth a read. Part history, part talking to radio presenters its a very good read

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating subject, so many interesting characters, coincidences and happy accidents. Shame it feels as though you're constantly having to peer around the author's ego just to get a glimpse.

[Neil Denham · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a radio fanatic this was right up my street! A couple of dullish chapters, but largely all really interesting and sent me off looking up things I wanted to find out more about!

[Fred Hart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love radio so have enjoyed reading this, albeit slowly, over recent months.

[Steve Chilton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Charlie Connelly should have spun the dial on his virtual radio more vigorously. A journey in search of radio was actually pretty much restricted to the BBC. Having said that, there were some fascinating details of early broadcasting history. It is well written and fairly romps along.

[Gordon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is both a partial history of radio in the UK and story filled with anecodtes and stories which bring out a vivid illustration of the events and times depicted.

[Nick Sanders · Rating 5 out of 5]

The blurb on the book reads: "Part nostalgic reverie, part social history, part travelogue, Last Train To Hilversum is Connelly's love letter to radio, exploring our relationship with the medium from its earliest days to the present in a journey from the wireless to wireless"

I have nothing to add to that, apart that the book is a must-read for radiolovers like me.