Winner, IP Picks 2007, Best Creative Non-Fiction

Chris Dowding lived a quiet, solitary life as an engineer in Brisbane that only began to change when he met his future wife Kerryn who, after their wedding, persuaded Chris to move to Ireland—to a new beginning.

A Few Drops Short of a Pint is the hilarious account of Chris and Kerryn’s Irish experience. Capturing Chris’s fascinations, frustrations and fears (did you know 58 percent of all motor accidents in Dublin occur during the day, in high visibility conditions with dry weather, on a straight road?) in his new surroundings, the story covers Irish lifestyle issues ranging from water heating to violent political factionalism.

While exploring Ireland, A Few Drops Short of a Pint is also a powerful story of self-exploration and discovery, showing that sometimes a change of circumstances is all the therapy we need. Jubilant and demoralised in equal measures, this is a story oozing with razor sharp (and often self-deprecating) wit that beautifully captures the experience of transplanting yourself into a foreign culture.