After Dinner Speeches

The Storyteller Supreme

Inn and Out at the Top

In a long and very chequered career, among a bewildering variety of other jobs, Neil Hanson has been an Oxford graduate, a plasterer’s mate, an ice cream salesman, a holiday camp redcoat and – simultaneously – an art critic and a rugby league commentator. He’s edited the “boozer’s Bible”, the Good Beer Guide – a job, he says, where it was practically a sacking offence not to go to the pub at lunchtime. He also ran, and later owned, Britain’s highest inn, in a remote corner of the Yorkshire Dales, went round the world twice and worked as a print journalist and radio broadcaster in Britain, Australia and New Zealand. He is now a very successful author with over 60 published books to his name. As well as his own work, he’s also a “ghost writer” for among others, sports stars, showbiz legends, captains of industry, SAS men, pilots, a treasure diver, a polar explorer, a kidnap negotiator, a spy, a surgeon and the first woman to qualify as a professional gamekeeper and deerstalker.

An award winning speaker, he has entertained audiences at every type of occasion – corporate events, conferences, festivals, luncheon clubs, dinners and banquets – throughout the UK and in New York, Chicago, Washington DC, Kansas City, New Orleans, Richmond, Va., Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, Auckland and Wellington.

“Inn & Out at the Top” is a laugh-a-minute tour of the quirks and foibles, highs and lows of running Britain’s highest inn – so isolated that its next-door neighbour was 4 miles away and so high above sea level that it had its own climate, with winds that could tear car-doors off their hinges, and winter snows that cut off the inn for weeks on end.

A hugely engaging storyteller, Neil’s account of his time at the inn, grappling with tight-fisted farmers, eccentric characters, bizarre local customs, naturist weekends, “lates and lock-ins”, police raids, rats in the attic, close encounters with magistrates and planners, and the shooting of a famous double glazing commercial, is suitable for all audiences.

Video URL: https://vimeo.com/250133011

Based: Yorkshire but willing to travel anywhere, home or abroad.

Contact:

T: 07940 917795 E: ghostwriterneil@gmail.com

 

Praise for Neil Hanson’s Speeches

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‘Excellent, really enjoyable and entertaining.’
- Lucy Moody, Head of Advertising, Everest Ltd

‘The best speaker I’ve ever heard.’
- Audience member, Ripon

‘We’ve had such positive feedback. My husband laughed so much he was nearly crying!‘
- Sandy Rysiok, Society of Municipal Treasurers

‘I’ve had nothing but positive responses, you really hit the right note.’
- Commander Andrew Coles, HMS Drake, Plymouth

• • ‘The best - and the best-received - of all the 100 events we’ve put on here.’
    - Ed Tracy, Executive Director, The Pritzker Library, Chicago

    ‘You were awesome.’
    - Thomas Power, Chairman, ecademy, London

    ‘Wonderfully entertaining - will be live at the Apollo next!’
    - Audience member, Knaresborough

    ‘A wonderful speaker. Your humour, wit and entertaining ability kept a very diverse audience entranced.’
    - Janet Munro, Soroptimist International

    ‘Fantastic, a tremendous evening.’
    - Amanda Lydon, New York City

    ‘We’ve had some excellent speakers over the years, but you were the very best we’ve ever had.’
    - Maurice Taylor, Rossett and Wakeman Lectures

    Best Speaker (vote by audiences)
    - Brisbane Festival

    ‘The feedback has been tremendous.’
    - Off The Shelf, Sheffield

    ‘A wonderful speech.’
    - Audience member, New Orleans

    ‘Extremely amusing and entertaining,’
    - Peter Mate, U3A

    ‘A wonderful event. It went down fantastically well.’
    - Rachel Feldberg, Director, Ilkley Festival

    ‘Thank you so much - your talk was brilliant.’
    - Meriel Jeater, Curator, Museum of London

    ‘An outstanding speaker – warm, funny, humane.’
    - Stephen Brown, Chairman, Yorkshire Post Literary Luncheons

    ‘The audience loved it, as did we.’
    - Wendy Kent, Director, Knaresborough Festival