★ IT WAS THE BET OF A LIFETIME! ★

Overcome with patriotic fervour, New Zealander Justin Brown bets an Australian mate that the All Blacks will thrash the Wallabies in an up-coming rugby match. They don't. Forced to pay his debt, Justin has to busk his way around England until he earns enough money for his airfare home.

THE DEAL

If Justin's favourite team loses he must door-door-busk his way around the United Kingdom.

If Justin's supposed best mate's favourite team loses he must streak at the Wimbledon Grand Final.

THE OUTCOME

Justin's teams loses. He is forced to go to the other side of the world and pay his way home as a door-to-door busker. Sure enough, wannabe musician Brown finds himself penniless and freezing. Armed with a duffle coat and a guitar, he travels the country in mid-winter and knocks on doors and sings for his supper. He meets gypsies, drinks with Britain's most famous street singer, harasses carol singers, plucks turkeys, speaks to J.K.Rowling and gets told to beat it 357 times.

Brown delivers a hilarious account of his journey, showing why he’s become an award-winning travel writer and bestselling author.

(Print edition first published as UK on a G-String by Random House and Summersdale Publishers in the United Kingdom. This story is published on amazon.co.uk as UK on a G-String.)

5 ★ REVIEW BY THE NZ HERALD

By MARGIE THOMSON

Blame it on the All Blacks: if they'd won their test match against Australia in August last year, we would already have forgotten how, during the following summer, an Aussie actor streaked across the courts at Wimbledon.

Instead, that actor's side won, and Kiwi Justin Brown had to follow up on his side of the bet: that if the All Blacks lost he would fly to England in the middle of winter and busk door-to-door until he'd earned enough money to get himself back home.

Needless to say, this is a high-rejection activity; luckily Brown is a cheerful chap who maintains his optimism and determination despite many a crisp "bugger off" and slammed door.

Brown has the gift not only of personal charm but of writing about other people with warmth and insight.

Through the cold towns of England and Scotland he treads, regaling surprised Britons with Kentucky Fried Kitten and the dubious Harry Potter Song, slowly collecting the £497 he needs for a ticket home. He meets England's most famous busker, Don "may the chords be with you" Partridge, attends Peter Blake's funeral at Emsworth, and knocks at the door of J.K. Rowling. A totally engaging read.

(Published in the United Kingdom as 'UK on a G-String.')