After his visit to us a year ago, Neil Hanson was best known to us as a former owner and proprietor of Britain’s highest pub, the Tan Hill Inn. He kept us laughing on that occasion with his story (Inn and Out at the Top, as he called it) of tight-fisted farmers, eccentric characters, bizarre local customs, naturist weekends, late-night lock-ins and the shooting of double glazing adverts.
This latest talk was equally entertaining, but covered the wider spectrum of Neil’s diverse life and career as a writer in his own right (or should that be write?) as well as a prolific ghostwriter for numerous personalities in the world of sport and entertainment. In all, he has written more than 60 books.
Neil, who is 77, has crammed a lot of living into just one life. Since graduating from Oxford University, he has travelled around the world twice; been a plasterer’s mate, an ice cream salesman and a Butlins’ Redcoat.
As he explained early in his talk, whereas most students these days have a gap year before venturing out into the big wide world, he had a ‘gap life,’ although he has been a full-time author for the past 30 years.
Neil is a versatile speaker and an engaging storyteller, and the scope and range of his subject matter ensured a captivating experience for a 2025 record equalling audience of 50 Stumperlowe Probus members (plus one guest) before we went our own ways after consuming our fill of Christmas mince pies (and the odd beer from the bar, of course).
Neil was at one time editor of the Good Beer Guide – a job, he explained, where it was almost considered a sacking offence not to go to the pub every lunchtime.
He finished off his visit by signing a selection of his own books. Whether this added value to them is anybody’s guess. He related how the late PM Edward Heath had so many book signings for his autobiography, The Course of My Life, that unsigned copies are now worth more than signed ones!