Notes From A Big Country: Journey Into the American Dream

Author(s): Bill Bryson

Travel Literature

Bill Bryson has the rare knack of being out of his depth wherever he goes - even (perhaps especially) in the land of his birth. This became all too apparent when, after nearly two decades in England, the world's best-loved travel writer upped sticks with Mrs Bryson, little Jimmy et al.and returned to live in the country he had left as a youth.Of course there were things Bryson missed about Blighty but any sense of loss was countered by the joy of rediscovering some of the forgotten treasures of his childhood- the glories of a New England autumn; the pleasingly comical sight of oneself in shorts; and motel rooms where you can generally count on being awakened in the night by a piercing shriek and the sound of a female voice pleading, 'Put the gun down, Vinnie, I'll do anything you say.'Whether discussing the strange appeal of breakfast pizza or the jaw-slackening direness of American TV, Bill Bryson brings his inimitable brand of bemused wit to bear on that strangest of phenomena - the American way of life.

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Bill Bryson's hilarious return to live the American Dream.

"One of his best books" -- Scott Bradfield Independent "Delightful bite-size essays that exude affection while debunking the ridiculous with wonderful succinctness... This is not a book to be read in a single sitting. It is one to be savoured" -- Martin Fletcher The Times "Bill Bryson's answer to Alistair Cooke's Letter From America...not only hilarious but also insightful and informative" -- Jeremy Atiyah Independent on Sunday "Bryson is great when explaining the idiosyncracies of America to middle England and making it funny... He is both serious and contemtuously funny" Guardian

Bill Bryson's bestselling travel books include The Lost Continent and Notes from a Small Island, which in a national poll was voted the book that best represents Britain. Another travel book, A Walk in the Woods, has become a major film starring Robert Redford, Nick Nolte and Emma Thompson. His new number one Sunday Times bestseller is The Road to Little Dribbling: More Notes from a Small Island. His acclaimed book on the history of science, A Short History of Nearly Everything, won the Royal Society's Aventis Prize as well as the Descartes Prize, the European Union's highest literary award. He has written books on language, on Shakespeare, on history, and on his own childhood in the hilarious memoir The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid. His last critically lauded bestsellers were At Home: a Short History of Private Life, and One Summer: America 1927 Bill Bryson was born in the American Midwest, and now lives in the UK. A former Chancellor of Durham University, he was President of the Campaign to Protect Rural England for five years, and is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society.

General Fields

  • : 9781784161842
  • : Transworld Publishers Limited
  • : Black Swan
  • : 0.266
  • : December 2016
  • : 198mm X 127mm X 24mm
  • : United Kingdom
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Bill Bryson
  • : Paperback
  • : 1603
  • : English
  • : 973
  • : very good
  • : 384