Geoff’s first two books were The Ulster Joke Book, reprinted three times, and Smith, a novel which was acclaimed by critics but made many normal people think Geoff should be locked up for his own safety.
His first travel book, Way to Go, on two great motorcycle journeys - from Delhi to Belfast on a Royal Enfield and Route 66 on a Harley - was published in April 2005, was the Mail on Sunday’s book of the week, was nominated for UK travel book of the year and has been reprinted six times.
The sequel, The Road to Gobblers Knob, on a ride from Chile to Alaska along the 16,500 miles of the Pan-American Highway with former Isle of Man TT winner Clifford Paterson in Spring 2006, was published in Spring 2007 and went straight to number seven in the paperback best sellers list.
His next book, Anyway, Where Was I? Geoff Hill’s alternative A-Z of the world, was published in September 2008 and also went straight into Waterstone’s best sellers list.
What the critics said:
Smith
Hill has a voice all his own - both lyrical and lunatic - which casts the world in a new light. Few first novels achieve as much.
Mark Sanderson, Independent on Sunday
Quietly hilarious. An offbeat and imaginative debut.
Lois Rathbone, The Times
I found it fascinating, was bowled over by it, and read it at one sitting. It is pure writing.
Vincent Banville, Sunday Press
Dialogue so real, it’s frightening. For a first novel, it is breathtakingly good.
Casey Evans, Irish Tatler
Weeks later, you’re still haunted by it…exerts a power that is quite astounding.
Anthony Jordan, Books Ireland
Way to Go
He has wonderful views on life, a great turn of phrase and a great sense of humour. His off-beat observations and zany outlook on life are laugh-out-loud funny.
John Mullin, The Independent
Shift your arse, Kerouac, Geoff Hill’s on the road - faster, funnier and still alive.
Colin Bateman
Brilliant.
Mensa Magazine (and they should know)
The Road to Gobblers Knob
The most inspiring and laugh-out-loud funny travelogue of the last fifty years. The yearning of an unmitigated adventurer leaps off every line.
Garbhan Downey, Verbal Magazine
A brilliant read, a book I simply couldn’t put down. Ted Simon meets Flann O’Brien, it’s a cracker.
Dave Myers, BBC’s Hairy Biker
Even funnier than the last one. How is this possible? More trees should die to support this book. It makes Ewan and Charley look like George and Mildred.
Colin Bateman
The clash of the reality of biking and the romance of the journey is what I enjoyed most and Hill’s style, honed over years entertaining and surprising readers across Northern Ireland, suited it perfectly. This is a great yarn.
Gary Quinn, The Irish Times
Anyway, Where Was I? Geoff Hill’s alternative A-Z of the world
Geoff Hill is a comic genius. I laughed until I cried, my nose bled and I lost control of my bowels. I may well have to kill him when I meet him.
Patrick Taylor, author of New York Times best seller An Irish Country Doctor
Incredibly funny. I loved it. I was laughing out loud on trains in a thoroughly embarrassing fashion and going to sleep with a smile on my face after the completely anarchic tales of killer dormice, Xavier Furtwangler and how not to get eaten by bears.
– Melissa Shales, Chairman, British Guild of Travel Writers
How do I get my hands on one?
You can buy Geoff’s books on www.amazon.co.uk, and also check them out on
www.blackstaffpress.com
If I’m a publisher, how do I contact Geoff?
In the UK and Ireland, Geoff is published by Blackstaff Press, www.blackstaffpress.com.
In the USA, contact his American agent, Natalia Aponte, at aponteliterary@gmail.com
What’s next?
In Spring 2010 Geoff Hill and fellow biker Colin O’Carroll, who was born in Belfast but grew up in Australia wrestling sharks, snogging kangaroos and riding dirt bikes before being sent back to Belfast for not having a criminal record, will circumnavigate Australia using the legendary Highway One before the road is decommissioned, taking 10 weeks to cover the 15,000 miles.
Highway One came into being with the Federation of Australia on New Year’s Day 1901, and is due to be decommissioned, in the same way as Route 66 was, in 2010.
It’s the longest national highway in the world. It circumvents the continent, never straying too far from the sea.
Its road condition varies from high-speed expressways in the big cities and busy country freeways like stretches of Pacific Highway and Princes Freeway to isolated and remote areas like the Nullarbor Plain and north western coasts and 4WD-only dirt tracks in the top end of the Northern Territory.
Some stretches across the Nullarbor Plain and along the north-western coastline are quite isolated, with roadside settlements supporting the passing traffic the only noticeable human activity for hundreds of kilometres. Still other stretches are high-speed high-capacity expressways with six lanes or even more such as Brisbane’s Gateway and Pacific Motorways, Sydney’s Eastern Distributor and Melbourne’s Monash Freeway.
The road covers practically every major inhabited part of Australia. It includes large capital cities, busy holiday resorts, dramatic coastlines, forests ranging from tropical through to temperate gum forests and giant karri stands, scrubland, deserts and huge tropical swamps are some of the variety of landscapes that can be found along en route.
Ironically, since the road is just about to cease to exist, in recent years it’s become a romantic journey a bit like Route 66 with Australians who’ve found a renewed interest in seeing their own country.
In conjunction with Matt Curry of TV and film company Bluebird Productions, the plan is for this to be a TV and newspaper series, website, blog and book.
The book has already been commissioned by Blackstaff Press, with the working title of Oz: Geoffrey and Colin’s outrageous Antipodean adventure.