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Notes from a Small Island

3.88 of 5 stars 3.88 · rating details · 34,831 ratings · 1,732 reviews

"Suddenly, in the space of a moment, I realized what it was that I loved about Britain-which is to say, all of it."

After nearly two decades spent on British soil, Bill Bryson-bestsellingauthor of The Mother Tongue and Made in America-decided to returnto the United States. ("I had recently read," Bryson writes, "that 3.7 million Americans believed that they had been abduct

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Paperback, 324 pages

Published May 1st 1997 by HarperCollins Publishers (first published 1995)

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Apr 08, 2009 Lisa Vegan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed, non-fiction, biography

It took me forever to read this because I was constantly picking it up and putting it down, not because I wasn’t enjoying it, but because it’s one of those books where it works to read it in this way, and I read so many other books during the times I took breaks from reading this book.

Sometimes I just don’t like Bill Bryson as a man. There’s a smattering of things he writes that are cruel, crass, and otherwise makes him unappealing to me, and he sure drinks a lot of beer, but the nasty material...more

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Jul 10, 2007 Alissa rated it 2 of 5 stars

Bill Bryson likes hedgerows, yelling at people, the English language, complaining, pretending to be a hiker, the fifth Duke of Portland, W.J.C. Scott-Bentinck, and himself. He tries too hard to be clever, and although you're being introduced to some interesting mental pictures ("a mid-face snack dispenser" for instance), and it's positively obvious how much he loves the English language and the art of writing, the lengths to which he goes can be tiring. The long-winded, irritating tangents he go...more

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Jul 08, 2009 Cecily rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: miscellaneous-non-fiction, overrated

After 20 years in England, Bill Bryson decided to tour Britain in 1995 by public transport over ~6 weeks and write a book about it.

There are snippets of great humour and insight (“a young man with more on his mind than in it”; “carpet with the sort of pattern you get when you rub your eyes too hard”; in Liverpool, “They were having a festival of litter... citizens had taken time off from their busy schedules to add crisp packets, empty cigarette boxes and carrier bags to the otherwise bland and...more After 20 years in England, Bill Bryson decided to tour Britain in 1995 by public transport over ~6 weeks and write a book about it.

There are snippets of great humour and insight (“a young man with more on his mind than in it”; “carpet with the sort of pattern you get when you rub your eyes too hard”; in Liverpool, “They were having a festival of litter... citizens had taken time off from their busy schedules to add crisp packets, empty cigarette boxes and carrier bags to the otherwise bland and neglected landscape”, and an amusing anecdote of him asking for directions having forgotten he was wearing pants on his head). But as the book progresses, they become fewer as the amount of repetitious moaning increases. For a self-confessed Anglophile, he often doesn’t seem very keen on the place, though the weather gets off surprisingly lightly, especially given that he made the trip in late autumn.

The lack of trains in remote areas is a particular bugbear, but what I don't understand is his outraged surprise - he'd lived in and travelled around the country for 20 years! He argues that they shouldn’t have to be profitable because traffic lights, drains and parks don’t. And at a practical level, he often changes his mind about where he's going once he's on the station platform or even on the train itself (i.e. after he should have bought a ticket), yet he never mentions encountering any problems with ticket collectors etc.

Modern architecture and urban planning are his other pet hates. He bemoans the homogeneity of high streets full of chains (rather than family shops), yet is annoyed at the lack of 24 hour opening and gives Marks and Spencer so many favourable mentions, I wondered if they sponsored him in some way.

Readers are treated to endless descriptions of hotels and stations, but without enough comment about actual people (with a few notable exceptions: Mrs Smegma, a lunatic in Weston, and an ancient train buff), which makes it increasingly dull. Mind you, the way he chose his wife is described in very detached terms, so maybe he’s just not really a people person. On the other hand, he occasionally throws in gratuitous expletives, which don’t fit the general style of the book.

However, the worst offence is the lack of index or map – both of which should be essential in any travel book (an index for any non fiction book). Overseas readers might also appreciate a glossary, as it's clearly written for an audience who, if not English, are at least familiar with the country.

But there are plus sides, and Bryson is at his best when he goes off at a tangent and riffs on some unexpected topic. He explains why the British would have coped well under Communism (good at queuing, tolerant of dictatorships (cf Mrs Thatcher) and boring food). He throws in potted history about the founder of Sainsbury and his mansion (but doesn’t bother to find out why it was left to rot) and the fact that the bicycle pedal was invented in Scotland. He points out that Manchester has no motif (that’s why I find it so forgettable!), the US has no equivalent of “taking the piss” and that while US soaps are about glamorous people who can’t act, British ones are the opposite. Rather than extolling the innovation of the tube map, he suggest tricks to play on tourists e.g. by getting the tube from Bank to Mansion House (1 change, 6 stops) to end up 200 yards from where they started. Best of all, he delights in words: the odd and romantic place names, the differences in usage between the US and Britain and the florid language of menus. He ponders replying in kind and requesting “a lustre of water freshly drawn from the house tap and presented au nature in a cylinder of glass”!

Overall, it’s like the famous curate’s egg: “parts of it are excellent”. I think there's a good book struggling to get out, but it needed a decent editor to make that happen.
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Jan 26, 2008 Conal rated it 3 of 5 stars

I happened upon this book by chance and read it because I enjoy Bill Bryson's writing style. His witty observations are not absent from this travelogue from his adopted home of the UK. The funny text and clever wording, however, do little to mask the fact that Bryson does not actually do very much on his journey. In almost every town, he takes walks, goes out to eat, gets quietly drunk, and bemoans modern architecture - in that order. Style can cover up for substance for only so long before it g...more

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Aug 15, 2007 Anne rated it 5 of 5 stars

I studied for a summer in Bath, adore Wimbledon, and I am a huge fan of Shakespeare and most of literary canon which can be defined as British Lit, so I think I've always had a special place in my heart for the UK, particularly England.

Also, this was introduction to Bryson and I was enchanted with his witty and slightly snarky prose that teach and amuse simultaneously!

A favorite moment: hiking in a rainstorm and reaching the summit to find a cadre of Brits huddled together eating soggy sandwic...more

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Jan 10, 2013 Ash rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: adventure-travel, memoir-biography, own_nf, 2012-read

Check: 10 places I want to see after reading this book

I am done with Bryson's books. The main reason is that I don't like him. He is funny sometimes but most of the time he is rude, mean, makes fun of other people, does things that I don't quite like.

This was my second book and even this failed to give me much information. I picked this book up since England is on the top of my "must-visit" places from a long time. I have been imagining about this country ever since I picked my first Enid Blyton...more Check: 10 places I want to see after reading this book

I am done with Bryson's books. The main reason is that I don't like him. He is funny sometimes but most of the time he is rude, mean, makes fun of other people, does things that I don't quite like.

This was my second book and even this failed to give me much information. I picked this book up since England is on the top of my "must-visit" places from a long time. I have been imagining about this country ever since I picked my first Enid Blyton's book and after re-reading Harry Potter books umpteen times. I wanted to know what was "good" about this country and what were the places that I must visit, if I visit this country sometime in the future.

But this book failed to give me any of this information. It was more of a memoir than a book on travel. He kept comparing England with how it was in 1970s and kept complaining how it had changed for the worse. It looked more like he was on a budget trip. He was not interested in paying for even a single entrance fee or take a tour of the palace if it costed even 2 pounds. I mean, you are writing a travelogue for God's sake. So you must visit all the good and famous places in England and let the reader know what is good about the place. But it looked like he felt at peace only in the cities which had a good pub and a cheap hotel. He hated almost every human being he met on the trip and all he did in most places was eat and drink beer.

It appeared to me that he did not like most part of England. At least that is what I felt after reading the book. After finishing the book, I got a feeling that it is a pretty boring country where people hardly do anything other than eat and shop. I mean, he doesn't mention a single place which would make me go "wow.. I must visit this place" even once! I kind of got fed up of his rants and complaints about every city he visited. He hates modern buildings, less populated cities, highly populated cities, almost every place he visits.

And I think he left out many of the good tourist places in England. The ones that he did mention were just brushed upon. For some part I was confused since he mentioned cities in Scotland to be part of "British".
His books neither have pictures nor maps. Apart from his humor at times, there is nothing much that's good about this book.
I am definitely not picking any other book for his! Waste of money.

There goes my last review for 2012! Happy new year!(less)

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Jun 23, 2009 Molly rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Molly by: Eloise

Shelves: humor

My first exposure to Bill Bryson was "A Walk In The Woods" which is about his desire to leave modern America behind and go for a stroll along the Appalachian Trail. I love that book and found it to be hysterical and at other times very sensible in his commentary about the world around us.

"Notes From A Small Island" also reflects his desire to stroll through countrysides and insert some social commentary about the communities he encounters. But this time his location is Great Britain and it is a...more My first exposure to Bill Bryson was "A Walk In The Woods" which is about his desire to leave modern America behind and go for a stroll along the Appalachian Trail. I love that book and found it to be hysterical and at other times very sensible in his commentary about the world around us.

"Notes From A Small Island" also reflects his desire to stroll through countrysides and insert some social commentary about the communities he encounters. But this time his location is Great Britain and it is a farewell tour of the country he called his home for over 20 years.

Not being British and having never been to any part of Britain I must admit I was at a total loss for many of the references he makes about the culture (pop to political) and the language. I constantly felt like a bit of an outsider listening in to some great inside jokes that flew right over my head.

But the sections where he described human nature in general, or the portions about Scotland where I did have some personal frame of reference thanks to a Scottish roommate in college, I found to be very funny and entertaining. It is obvious this book was written about Britain for a British audience and because of it I had a nice descriptive tour of the geography, the people and, of course, the wet weather.

I was a little surprised by the sudden brash insertions of vulgarity and showy tell-offs of people who happened to annoy him. I don't really recall that style from my reading of "A Walk In The Woods" but maybe I just don't remember it because I was laughing too hard. I swear myself all the time so it wasn't offensive personally, but it felt like it was thrown in there purposefully to fit in or something.

I also tired of his constant criticism of the architectural horrors - even though I agree with his frustration and anger about it. Just hammered that point a little too often for my tastes. I get it - stupid architects destroyed pieces of history left and right for shopping plazas which is blasphemy. More about the human interest please, which he writes very well.

Overall the book was an easy read that could be picked up and put down without problem so it would be great to read on a commute or in between other books. It was entertaining enough but I would recommend more for people not completely clueless like me about Britain - the humor would be appreciated much more.(less)

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Jan 06, 2008 Dish rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: expat Brits or those nostalgic for the 1990s

Shelves: comfort-re-reads

It was hardly surprising to discover that the first book I finished in 2008 was one of my comfort re-reads. For these are the books I treasure, in the absolute certainty that whenever I feel bored, depressed, tired, lonely, miserable, or just over-whelmed by daily life I can pull them out and indulge in the healing power of the written word.

And Bill Bryson's “Notes from a Small Island” must be recorded as the ultimate comfort re-read for an expat Brit; providing on every page diversions that ar...more It was hardly surprising to discover that the first book I finished in 2008 was one of my comfort re-reads. For these are the books I treasure, in the absolute certainty that whenever I feel bored, depressed, tired, lonely, miserable, or just over-whelmed by daily life I can pull them out and indulge in the healing power of the written word.

And Bill Bryson's “Notes from a Small Island” must be recorded as the ultimate comfort re-read for an expat Brit; providing on every page diversions that are fascinating, enlightening, humourous, or just plain nostalgic. I must confess that in general I find Bryson's travel writing merely mildly entertaining, and inferior to his other non-fiction. Notes from a Small Island is the one, outstanding exception. Bryson finds his true metier and calling when he is explaining to the British what makes them British, and why he adores them.

Bryson rants about things which deserve a rant such as preserving hedgerows, the petty annoyances of driving, the money spent on national parks, British attitudes about American English, and hideous modern architecture.
He treasures the things which should be treasured: queuing, politeness, puddings, or three dozen English people having a picnic on a mountaintop in an ice storm.
He's widely knowledgeable and well-researched in Roman history, utterly insane and reclusive members of the gentry, pit painters, cursed homes, Victorian industrialists, and the numbers of motorboats registered on Lake Windemere.
He's a talented comedian, turning every little story from his past into a humourous gem.
He's (mostly) aware enough of his own personal character flaws – grumpiness, irrational disklikes, shyness on public transport – as to be able to make fun of them.
And best, he’s so full of wonder, curiosity, and joy. He's curious about placenames, linguistics (why did they call it a 'grapefruit'?), the potato marketing board, psychology, gender differences, and the timetabling abilities of the Blaenau Ffestiniog railway.

From the underpants-clad-head at the start, to the Seattle-Carlisle railway at the end, I know I can open this book anywhere and find something entertaining, edifying, or enlightening.(less)

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Nov 25, 2007 Johnsergeant rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: audiblecom, audiobook

Downloaded from Audible.com

Narrator: Bill Bryson
Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio, 1999
Length: 6 hours (abridged)

Publisher's Summary
After nearly 2 decades in Britain, Bill Bryson, the acclaimed author of such best sellers as The Mother Tongue, Made in America, and A Walk in the Woods, decided it was time to move back to the United States for a while. This was partly to let his wife and kids experience life in Bryson's homeland - and partly because he had read that 3.7 million Americans beli...more

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Oct 11, 2007 Cecilia rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anglophiles

Shelves: favorites

This is Bryson’s swan song to his adopted home of England, where he lived for over 10 years. Bryson decided, after he and his wife were leaving the UK to return to the States, to take one final trek around this “small island” and write about these farewell experiences. This was the first one of Bryson’s books that I read (I had heard of his bestselling books A Walk in the Woods and In A Sunburned Country about Appalachia and Australia respectively) and I chose this one to start with because of m...more

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Feb 24, 2008 Eli rated it 4 of 5 stars

A tremendously humorous love letter from the author to his adopted country of England. Bryson takes a walking tour of England prior to returning to the U.S., and fondly skewers everything from the architecture to the food to the relentlessly polite and proper Brits themselves.

Having spent a fair amount of time in London, perhaps it spoke to me more deeply then someone not as familiar with the culture, but it is one of the few books I can recall that made me laugh out loud.

Bryson is adept and cle...more

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Jun 26, 2008 Stacy rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: life-stories, nonfiction, did-not-finish

I only got about a third of the way through this book. I was giving Bill Bryson one more chance to impress me, but he didn't quite do it.

I would recommend this book for anyone who has lived in England, as many of the references in the book would escape someone who has not spent much time there. However, I was just never pulled in by his narrative.

I felt like Bryson writes with a perennial smirk on his face, laughing at his own cleverness as he pens various turns of the phrase. But a few funny...more

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Jun 26, 2007 Jenn rated it 4 of 5 stars

My manager in DC gave me this book before I left for London - and it was freakin hysterical to read. The author was basically reiterating all the thoughts I had while I was there, living amongst the Brits, diciphering the weird accents, and travelling around the countrysides on the weekends. Bryson has a comical and sarcastic tone throughout (like a true American) and he mainly complained the whole time he was there. But in the end, he was grateful (greatful?) to have had that experience, and I...more

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Aug 06, 2007 Julie rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is so funny! I giggled all the way through. Being a Brit I just loved his experience of our guest houses, especially as the welcome at many of them hasn't changed one jot! He wrote the book C1995 so it is considerably out of date, but if you take that into consideration and want a really good laugh at the expense of the Brits and Americans then you'll love this one. I particularly enjoyed his struggle with the difference in our languages......as one who has experienced the difference d...more

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Jul 19, 2007 adventurat rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anglophiles, travelers, anyone with a sense of humour

Shelves: 2007, non-fiction, travelogue

I laughed so much while reading this that I squeaked, gasped, and could hardly breathe, much less speak. Bryson is an American who has lived in England for about many years. He is moving himself and his family back to America, however, and this book is the story of his farewell tour of England, Scotland, and Wales. His affection for the people and the places is unmistakable, and his "outsider's" perspective combined with a wry wit make for entertaining - and hilarious - reading.

Bryson has writt...more

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Mar 16, 2009 Melissa rated it 4 of 5 stars

I like Bill Bryson quite a bit -- he's very informative and funny, even if sometimes you have to check to see if he's pulling your leg. This is about traveling through Britain circa mid-90's -- the good, the bad, the ugly. An American who married an Englishwoman, he'd lived in England a good many years at that point, and was doing a farewell tour before uprooting the family and going to live in America for a few years -- Hanover, New Hampshire, to be exact. Currently he's Chancellor at Durham Un...more

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Nov 28, 2008 Walt rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone interested in the more contemporary Great Britain.

Recommended to Walt by: This was a bookclub suggestion.

I found myself thinking about the taxes paid by the most successful of writers like Bryson while reading this travelogue . Why would I wonder about that, you ask? Well, check out Making Expression Less Taxing on Amazon, you will get a clue.

Like several of Bryson's books in the library, this is a travel book written by him in anticipation of his moving back to the U.S. (where he grew up) from Great Britain (where he had lived for about twenty years with his British wife). (You've got to wonder ab...more

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Sep 16, 2007 Maryrose rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: haveread

this was the first Bill Bryson I read and it made me cause attention to myself as I was literally laughing out loud on the Tube in London! The bit that stays with me the most is the difference between how men and women queue... men are all prepared with the exact amount of change counted out, proffering it to the person... women look all surprised and fumble for their purse, then rummage around for the right amount of Money...

I think Bill Bryson is a sharp and witty observor of human beings.

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Feb 24, 2013 Mike rated it 3 of 5 stars

Since I love all things English,and had the pleasure of visiting for 5 drink-fuelled days a few years back...I looked forward to reading about the gazillion places i would have liked to visit but didnt have the chance...

...and Bryson went to A LOT of them...after a while,there's so many similar stories of tearooms,B&Bs,small shops and train stations,you can forget exactly which town youre reading about!...

Sometimes Bryson can be hilarious and insightful,sometimes a total snob...and he seems...more

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Feb 19, 2013 Ian Mapp rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: travel, humour

Took me a long time to get around to this. I actually owned a copy about 5 years ago and promptly lost it. Ended up getting it from the library.

My first attempt at Travel Writing and deeply successful. Straightaway, I want to read more and am tempted by the Kingdom by the Sea, which this book constantly references. Although I fear they may be too similar.

So this book is written by a kind of outsider - he is American but has lived here for 20 years. He travels most of the country by train, spendi...more Took me a long time to get around to this. I actually owned a copy about 5 years ago and promptly lost it. Ended up getting it from the library.

My first attempt at Travel Writing and deeply successful. Straightaway, I want to read more and am tempted by the Kingdom by the Sea, which this book constantly references. Although I fear they may be too similar.

So this book is written by a kind of outsider - he is American but has lived here for 20 years. He travels most of the country by train, spending a couple of days here and there and talking to the reader about his frustrations and triumphs. What is obvious, is his deep affection for the UK. What was surprising was just how mean he can be to its populus. The ending of the book where he ridicules the Glaswegian accent is a typical case in point. The writing is surprisingly nastier than you would expect.

It was written in the early 90s and its interesting to see how things have changed. He bemoans the British High Street for being identikit - with the same shops in different towns. I wonder what he would make of it now, with the boarded up shops. And I think he would be aghast at the death of the boozer.

The adventure is excellent - 7 weeks charging across the country, often on a whim and staying in a range of diffent boarding house and hotels. Obviously the book was going to pay for this.

I know a lot of the places, although when he writes about somewhere like Salisbury, it immediately goes on to my bucket list of places to go.

The observations are mainly hilarious and spot on and backed up with some staggering facts (Britain has the third lowest investment in its rail system in Europe). My favourite has to be the British Attitude to travel. He describes talking about getting from the home counties to the west country being met with incredulation from his fellow boozers in a pub, when Americans would travel that far to get a taco.

Bang on - it has been my motto to travel like an american, since I started reading the Frommer's guides.

A start of a new genre for me.(less)

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Oct 26, 2012 Mark Lancaster rated it 4 of 5 stars

I'm ripped through Notes from a Small Island. The content is a little dated here and there, since Bryson wrote it in 1994 (it was published in 1995), I believe, but I would recommend it to anyone who has a passing interest in the British Isles. It makes me chuckle every now and then - one thing to be said about the British is that they can laugh at themselves. I love living here - it's our eccentricities and idiosyncracies that make life here interesting! Plus, it may be a small island, but it h...more I'm ripped through Notes from a Small Island. The content is a little dated here and there, since Bryson wrote it in 1994 (it was published in 1995), I believe, but I would recommend it to anyone who has a passing interest in the British Isles. It makes me chuckle every now and then - one thing to be said about the British is that they can laugh at themselves. I love living here - it's our eccentricities and idiosyncracies that make life here interesting! Plus, it may be a small island, but it has some pretty places. Bryson tells us that, in Britain, there are 445,000 listed historical buildings, 12,000 medieval churches, 1,500,000 acres of common land, 120,000 miles of footpaths and public rights-of-way and 600,000 known sites of archaeological interest. The sad part is that many of us, I believe, take it for granted. For instance, he tells us that in his Yorkshire village at that time, there were more 17th-century buildings than in the whole of North America. And just think of how much has been swept away by 'progress'. Like Bryson, I take great delight in British place- and street-names - the 'Wallops' in Wilshire, for instance, and Seething Lane in East London. It's certainly inspired me to make more of my own country. He notes the British attitude towards animals - that the RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) was founded fifty years before the NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children) - and that the latter was originally an offshoot of the former. He also notes the British democratic attitude towards queueing and that a woman in his Edinburgh hotel apologised for telling the receptionist that her room tv didn't seem to work. I do that all the time - apologising for something that's not my fault, I mean, or causing a potential inconvenience. I also ask retail and bar staff if I can have something, rather than telling them what I would like. He also notes the pleasure the British take in simple pleasures - such as a nice cup of tea - and how humour can be found in the most unlikely of situations and places. He's also very critical of many things, such as modern architecture, but I won't go into that now...(less)

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Sep 12, 2012 Alexandra rated it 2 of 5 stars

I have a love-hate relationship with this book, but I'm leaning towards the hate side; Bryson writes about his travels throughout the UK, back-packing most of the way, exploring different cities and places alone and telling his readers about his experiences in those cities. Reading this before going to the UK myself was somewhat of a good and bad decision. He definitely does not capture the full experience in England as a whole, but he is very observant in its people and how he interacts with th...more

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Jul 13, 2012 Ania rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: abandoned, britain

It seems to me I either like Bryson's books a lot, or hate them. For example In a Sunburned Country and A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail were excellent, while this book and A Short History of Nearly Everything were disappointing.

I think what I like most about his travel books is that when he travels with a companion he's at his funniest. Alternatively, when he tells me interesting anecdotes and facts about the place he's travelling through, it can also keep me...more

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Jun 26, 2012 Duesterwald-Online rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Inhalt:
Nach fast zwanzig Jahren in England will Reise-Autor Bill Bryson mit seiner Familie in sein Heimatland, die USA, zurückziehen.

Doch bevor es so weit ist beschließt er noch einmal via Bus und Bahn durch das Land zu reisen, das ihn so fasziniert hatte, um sich gebührend von dem Land zu verabschieden, das so lange sein zu Hause gewesen ist.

Gesagt, getan und so begibt sich der reiselustige Bryson auf eine abenteuerliche Odyssee.

Meinung:
Im Zuge eines Universitätskurses musste ich mir ein Buch...more

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Jun 03, 2012 Eustacia Tan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is one of those "incidental" books. I didn't intend to borrow it, but it caught my eye when I was wandering around the TUFS library. Since this book inspired Neil Humphrey's "Notes from an Even Small Island" (which covers Singapore), I figured that it couldn't hurt to try reading this book.

And wow, I can really see the similarities in the way the two books are written. They're both travelogues of a sort, and they do criticise the respective islands (which, in this case is Britain - not that...more This is one of those "incidental" books. I didn't intend to borrow it, but it caught my eye when I was wandering around the TUFS library. Since this book inspired Neil Humphrey's "Notes from an Even Small Island" (which covers Singapore), I figured that it couldn't hurt to try reading this book.

And wow, I can really see the similarities in the way the two books are written. They're both travelogues of a sort, and they do criticise the respective islands (which, in this case is Britain - not that I would call it an island) but at the core, you feel like the author really does love the place.

Basically, Bill Bryson is about to leave Britain to go back to America and he decides to say farewell by taking a trip around the place. It gives him a chance to compare the Britain he knew and the one that he's saying goodbye to, complain a bit, praise the British transport system and teach you the interesting parts of British history. It manages to be funny and educational at the same times. While it does veer towards condescension at times, it stays on the right side of funny most of the time.

Of course, I checked the published date and it was published in 1995, so you really shouldn't use this as a travel guide in any way. But I find it really cool that it was published while I was living in Britain (my family also has fond memories of the place). So in a way, this is now a history book within a history book. Britain in 1995 and the Britain of the "past" in the book that Bryson compares the Britain he leaves to.

There was only one time where I disagreed with him, and of course, it's over the English language. He says something to the effect that the English language has been enriched by American English. Really? What I remember about American English affecting us (in Singapore) took place when I was 16. For our O levels Chemistry, we were told all of the sudden that due to America, we were to change the spelling of sulphur to "sulfur". I like to think it says a lot of good things about my school that we didn't rejoice at being able to save the effort of writing a letter but instead, started complaining to the teacher that the new spelling made the word look ugly (it does!). Of course, we were only marginally comforted when the teacher agreed with us, but sadly, that ugly spelling is here to stay.

All in all, this is a really funny book that is really different from most "travel" books that I've seen. But naturally, I prefer Neil Humphrey's Notes from an Even Small Island, since I actually know the places talked about in the book there.

First posted at Inside the mind of a Bibliophile (less)

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May 11, 2012 Mitch rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: travel, biographical

Let's all take a moment and be thankful that, whenever someone decides to move back to their home country, they don't decide to take a final whirlwind tour and write a book about it.

That's what Bill did here. It's once around England and then back to America!

Don't get me wrong: Bill Bryson can be very funny at times. Absolutely.

I just think he needed a better situation to employ his wit. The humor comes through, but not often enough to make this book notable. I actually want to forget it quickly...more

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May 02, 2012 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars

I heard celestial music, an arpeggio of harps, and a voice speak to me: "I've just sent those dogs into a nest of adders... Have a nice day."
It's always interesting hearing views about your own country. Having read A Short History of Nearly Everything, I'm no stranger to Bryson's charming descriptions, and this was no exception. I find his opinions solid and - mostly - flattering. It really made me feel like something bigger, and I owe him one for that. You probably noticed I only gave four star...more

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Feb 03, 2012 Becky rated it 2 of 5 stars

This wasn't dreadful, but I can't say I consistently enjoyed it. Bryson and I share many interests, such as bad architecture, weird place names, and traveling around the British coast during the off-season by way of unreliable public transport. I did find this book sometimes funny and sometimes insightful, and mostly I was amused to discover that the Exeter St. David's train station had the same collection of lame, unappealing tourist brochures in the mid-nineties as it does today. Some things n...more

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Jan 25, 2012 Maura rated it 2 of 5 stars

Slightly disappointed by this one, but i think that's a matter of raised expectations. I remember quite liking I'm a Stranger Here Myself and since this one directly deals with England (my true home away from home; i keep thinking someday i'll move back to London) i figured that gave me a lock on getting warm fuzzies from this.

Problem is, while he spends a fair bit of time telling you what he loves about Britain, a lot of it is stuff that existed 20 years ago (when he first moved there). So we g...more

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Aug 06, 2011 Marc Maitland rated it 4 of 5 stars

Curious that an American should be appointed Chairman for the Council for the Protection of Rural England, I read this with some trepidation! I have concluded that I empathise with much of what Mr. Bryson says (I too remember 1970s seaside "guest houses" with Ena Sharples-type landladies - but he forgot to mention the Izal toilet paper - younger readers are fortunate indeed not to have encountered either!) and the inedibility of British Rail ("Traveller's Fare" - what a misnomer!) food. However,...more Curious that an American should be appointed Chairman for the Council for the Protection of Rural England, I read this with some trepidation! I have concluded that I empathise with much of what Mr. Bryson says (I too remember 1970s seaside "guest houses" with Ena Sharples-type landladies - but he forgot to mention the Izal toilet paper - younger readers are fortunate indeed not to have encountered either!) and the inedibility of British Rail ("Traveller's Fare" - what a misnomer!) food. However, part company from him on such issues as his incredulity at the British love affair with steam railways, and his apparently insatiable appetite for Chinese food!

His comparison of 1990s Britain (when he wrote the book) with his first arrival in the 1970s is poignant. Whowver wrote "The past is another country" was indeed correct. However, reading abiut 1993 in 2008 is also reading about another country! Mr. Bryson still admired the British penchant for queueing (in 2008 I see little evidence of this, especially at Fulham bus stops!), and railway staff that were polite (despite the compulsory attendance at public relations courses, I find much of the public transport staff at best indifferent and at worst surly in 2008). He is however spot on regarding the de-characterisation of most British towns and cities, with acres of plastic shopfronts announcing the exact same shops in every high street, the criminally ugly town centre and other redevelopments that have blighted Blighty in a way that would have baffled even Goering's Luftwaffe, and his appreciation for countryside that continues to inspire despite, and not because of, Government policy.

Overall, a thoroughly enjoyable read, albeit the bits of it that purport to be "current" are now themselves historic. I think a 21st Century update is called for, wherein Mr. Bryson can wax poetic about "hoodies", those institutions jokingly called "comprehensive schools", the disintegration of political honour, the lunacy of most local authorities (the very term "authority" is apposite; "local democracy" has all but disappeared) the complete disappearance of any manufacturing and now even most service industries, and a million other things that have eaten away at our once great country.

It often takes an outsider to write objectively about a country: Mr. Bryson has done this with wit and understanding - please do some more!(less)

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About Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson was born in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1951. He settled in England in 1977, and worked in journalism until he became a full time writer. He lived for many years with his English wife and four children in North Yorkshire. He and his family then moved to New Hampshire in America for a few years, but they have now returned to live in the UK.
In The Lost Continent, Bill Bryson's hilarious first t...more

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Books by Bill Bryson

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail

I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After 20 Years Away

At Home: A Short History of Private Life

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Quotes from Notes from a Small Island

“I know this goes without saying, but Stonehenge really was the most incredible accomplishment. It took five hundred men just to pull each sarsen, plus a hundred more to dash around positioning the rollers. Just think about it for a minute. Can you imagine trying to talk six hundred people into helping you drag a fifty-ton stone eighteen miles across the countryside and muscle it into an upright position, and then saying, 'Right, lads! Another twenty like that, plus some lintels and maybe a couple of dozen nice bluestones from Wales, and we can party!' Whoever was the person behind Stonehenge was one dickens of a motivator, I'll tell you that.” — 87 people liked it

“Suddenly, in the space of a moment, I realized what it was that I loved about Britain - which is to say, all of it. Every last bit of it, good and bad - Marmite, village fetes, country lanes, people saying 'mustn't grumble' and 'I'm terribly sorry but', people apologizing to me when I conk them with a nameless elbow, milk in bottles, beans on toast, haymaking in June, stinging nettles, seaside piers, Ordnance Survey maps, crumpets, hot-water bottles as a necessity, drizzly Sundays - every bit of it.

What a wondrous place this was - crazy as fuck, of course, but adorable to the tiniest degree. What other country, after all, could possibly have come up with place names like Tooting Bec and Farleigh Wallop, or a game like cricket that goes on for three days and never seems to start? Who else would think it not the least odd to make their judges wear little mops on their heads, compel the Speaker of the House of Commons to sit on something called the Woolsack, or take pride in a military hero whose dying wish was to be kissed by a fellow named Hardy? ('Please Hardy, full on the lips, with just a bit of tongue.') What other nation in the world could possibly have given us William Shakespeare, pork pies, Christopher Wren, Windsor Great Park, the Open University, Gardners' Question Time and the chocolate digestive biscuit? None, of course.

How easily we lose sight of all this. What an enigma Britain will seem to historians when they look back on the second half of the twentieth century. Here is a country that fought and won a noble war, dismantled a mighty empire in a generally benign and enlightened way, created a far-seeing welfare state - in short, did nearly everything right - and then spent the rest of the century looking on itself as a chronic failure. The fact is that this is still the best place in the world for most things - to post a letter, go for a walk, watch television, buy a book, venture out for a drink, go to a museum, use the bank, get lost, seek help, or stand on a hillside and take in a view.

All of this came to me in the space of a lingering moment. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I like it here. I like it more than I can tell you.” — 35 people liked it

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