McHugh, Evan

PERSONAL:

Born in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

CAREER:

Freelance journalist and writer.

WRITINGS:

The National Geographic Traveler: Sydney, National Geographic Society (Washington, DC), 1999.

The Rot Stuff, Lothian Books (Port Melbourne, Victoria, Australia), 2000.

(With John Moriarty) Saltwater Fella, Viking (Ringwood, Victoria, Australia), 2000.

Pint-Sized Ireland: In Search of the Perfect Guinness, Lothian Books (South Melbourne, Victoria, Australia), 2001, Thomas Dunne Books (New York, NY), 2007.

Shipwrecks: Australia's Greatest Maritime Disasters, Viking (Camberwell, Victoria, Australia), 2003.

Outback Heroes: Australia's Greatest Bush Stories, Viking (Camberwell, Victoria, Australia), 2004.

1606: An Epic Adventure, University of New South Wales Press (Sydney, NSW, Australia), 2006.

Red Centre, Dark Heart, Penguin (Camberwell, Victoria, Australia), 2007.

Contributor to Australian.

SIDELIGHTS:

Evan McHugh is a freelance journalist whose Pint-Sized Ireland: In Search of the Perfect Guinness sets out to do just what it says. To research the book, McHugh and his girlfriend traveled around Ireland, stopping in the costal towns of Kilarney, Dingle, Tralee, and Tarbet, as well as the typical tourist areas of the island. Interspersed with local lore and some history, the book tells how the local brew of Guinness beer is different depending on which pub and town one is in. Mark Knoblauch, writing in Booklist, thought that "fans both of Ireland and of Guinness will enjoy pub-crawling with McHugh." A contributor to Publishers Weekly commented that McHugh's "prose flows like a friendly barstool chat," adding that "his frequent cheeky one-liners play the foil to his nostalgic nature." A contributor to Kirkus Reviews summed up McHugh's efforts, saying: "This book is heady and goes down smoothly."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, February 15, 2007, Mark Knoblaunch, review of Pint-Sized Ireland: In Search of the Perfect Guinness, p. 26.

Kirkus Reviews, February 1, 2007, review of Pint-Sized Ireland, p. 114.

Library Journal, February 15, 2007, Joel Jones, review of Pint-Sized Ireland, p. 140.

Publishers Weekly, January 22, 2007, review of Pint-Sized Ireland, p. 181.