Tony Hawks has made a decent writing career out of making unusual bets and then winning them. From "Round Ireland with a Fridge" to "Playing the Moldovans at Tennis" and "One hit Wonderland", Hawks is scooting around the world, getting up to all sorts of hijinks. At least, that would be good but I fear Hawks started to run out of steam by "One Hit Wonderland".

As someone who bought a copy of Morris Minor and the Major's "Stutter Rap" back in the day, I looked forward to reading of Hawk's return to the charts but as the book dragged on I began to fear that he would lose his bet. Eventually, Norman Wisdom comes to the rescue and while I don't consider Wisdom funny (although Hawks seems to find Wisdom deliberately tripping over air stewardesses hilarious), Hawks gets his second hit.

As a Tony Hawks fan, read this if you are a completest but please do not read his follow-up "Piano in the Pyrenees"; you have better things to do than read it, trust me. ( )

Tony Hawks? You know - the lanky, understated comedian who sometimes pops up on Radio 4 quiz programmes. Oh, and he also wrote a book based on a bet he had with Arthur Smith about travelling around Ireland with a fridge. Ah, you've placed him now!

Well, another bet sees him taking up the challenge of building on an earlier hit song he had a while back; the challenge being to get another hit onto the charts within two years. Tony has a network of contacts that he exploits and he sets off on various ventures to achieve his goal. His trips to various countries to achieve his aim are laid out, with varying degrees of pick-up on his task, and there's an interesting final effort - with the accompanying pictures documenting his steps along the way and making his final musical collaboration less of a surprise.

Tony Hawks writes in the laid-back style of his comedy persona, with plenty of humour sprinkled in. This makes for easy reading, and the stories and anecdotes he relates give a good picture of his optimistic and out-going personality, as well as some useful insight into the localities he visits.

I'm happy to recommend this for anyone with a passing interest in humour, travel or music, or indeed autobiography. It's a story well told, with a beginning, middle and end and it left me feeling very cheerful. ( )

Tony Hawks is a very funny man on the television but this book did not make me laugh that much. In my opinion it is not as funny as Around Ireland with a fridge. ( )

Amusing tale of another bet, by a man who seems to have a way of engaging with people and getting them to do things for him ( )

After winning his bets that he couldn't circumnavigate Ireland with a fridge in tow or play all of the Moldovan national football team at tennis, in "One Hit Wonderland" Tony Hawks, a man who has built a career out of appearing on Radio 4 panel games and accepting another bizarre challenges, accepts a bet that he can have a hit single anywhere in the world within two years.

Hawks does have a track record here, having reached number 4 in the UK with "Stutter Rap", under the guise of Morris Minor and the Majors. He travels to Nashville (Music City USA), the Sudan, Holland and Romania in his quest, but things only really begin to take off when he meets 87 year old Norman Wisdom, a superstar in Albania....

Unlike obvious inspiration Bill Bryson, this book places more emphasis on the humour than the travel; you won't find out much about the cultures that Hawks visits during his quest. However, as a celebration of British eccentricity in out of the way places, this is up to the standards of the previous two books, with several laugh out loud moments. Unpretentious, amiable fun. ( )