Notes From A Small Island

Notes From A Small Island

After nearly two decades in Britain, Bill Bryson recently took the decision to move back to the States for a while, to let his kids experience life in another country, to give his wife the chance to shop until 10 p.m. seven nights a week, and, most of all, because he had read the 3.7 million Americans believed that they had been abducted by aliens at one time or another, and it was thus clear to him that his people needed him.But before leaving his much-loved home in North Yorkshire, Bryson insisted on taking one last trip around Britain, a sort of valedictory tour of the green and kindly island that had so long been his home. His aim was to take stock of the nation's public face and private parts (as it were), and to analyse what precisely it was he loved so much about a country that had produced Marmite, a military hero whose dying wish was to be kissed by a fellow named Hardy, place names like Farleigh Wallop, Titsey and Shellow Bowells, people who said 'Mustn't grumble', and Gardeners' Question Time.THE LOST CONTINENT, Bill Bryson's savagely funny account of his journey back to his roots in small-town USA, took Britain by a storm of guffaws in 1989. It was followed by NEITHER HERE NOR THERE, in which Bryson applied his unique brand of wry humour to the foibles of Continental Europe and the Europeans. Both books have rarely been absent from the bestseller lists since. Now, in NOTES FROM A SMALL ISLAND, Bryson turns a laconic but affectionate eye on his adopted country. Britain will never seem the same again.