The Road to Little Dribbling
More Notes from a Small Island
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4.5 • 298 Ratings
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- £5.99
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
WINNER: NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELLER READER AWARD FOR BEST TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR 2016
WINNER: BOOKS ARE MY BAG READER AWARD FOR BEST AUTOBIOGRAPHY OR BIOGRAPHY 2016
Twenty years ago, Bill Bryson went on a trip around Britain to celebrate the green and kindly island that had become his adopted country. The hilarious book that resulted, Notes from a Small Island, was taken to the nation’s heart and became the bestselling travel book ever, and was also voted in a BBC poll the book that best represents Britain.Now, to mark the twentieth anniversary of that modern classic, Bryson makes a brand-new journey round Britain to see what has changed.
Following (but not too closely) a route he dubs the Bryson Line, from Bognor Regis to Cape Wrath, by way of places that many people never get to at all, Bryson sets out to rediscover the wondrously beautiful, magnificently eccentric, endearingly unique country that he thought he knew but doesn’t altogether recognize any more. Yet, despite Britain’s occasional failings and more or less eternal bewilderments, Bill Bryson is still pleased to call our rainy island home. And not just because of the cream teas, a noble history, and an extra day off at Christmas.
Once again, with his matchless homing instinct for the funniest and quirkiest, his unerring eye for the idiotic, the endearing, the ridiculous and the scandalous, Bryson gives us an acute and perceptive insight into all that is best and worst about Britain today.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Bill Bryson practically invented a new genre of travel writing with his bestseller Notes From a Small Island. Twenty years later, his observations on a much-changed Britain are even funnier. The Road to Little Dribbling explores topics like the bizarre questions posed at citizenship exams (e.g. who introduced shampoo into the UK?) and our obsession with coffee shops (where have all the other shops gone?). Still, Bryson’s huge affection for all things British—eccentric monarchs and a classic ploughman's included—really made us smile. This is feel-good Britannia with an appropriately irreverent edge.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bryson returns to his adopted country of Britain to revisit some of his favorite sites in this followup to his bestselling Notes from a Small Island, published in 1996. He discovers that some of these places, like Dorset, a coastal city Bryson describes as "rolling perfection," remain relatively unchanged, while others have changed for better or worse. He reports that Manchester, a city he took to task in his earlier effort, has improved, though many of his compliments are backhanded. As usual, he scatters an entertaining mix of wacky anecdotes and factoids (e.g., during an eight-week period in 2009, four people in Britain were fatally trampled by cows) throughout, but his enduring mix of wonder and irascibility is what carries readers through his travels. His wry observations and self-deprecating humor keep him from coming off as a bitter cynic, and his lyrical way with words keeps the pages turning.
Customer Reviews
What a pleasure.
I was late to the Bill Bryson party and I’m not sure how I ended up there in the first place but I’m glad I did. Wonderful ramblings hiding remarkably well researched topics and not without a more than adequate dollop of observational wit. You really can’t go wrong.
The Road to Little Dribbling
For an American Bill Bryson has surprisingly captured the essence of England in this very readable book. Meandering across the country with no particular itinerary to speak of he introduces us to places and characters that we probably thought were long gone but amazingly, with little searching, can still be found. Genuinely, I could not put it down.
To the Author
I loved the Grand Tour and felt privileged to be allowed to accompany you. I wish you might have stayed a little longer on my patch by the River Thames. I thought of offering to put you up in the spare room to coax more offbeat local observations out of you.
Laughing out loud at my age is rare and possibly dangerous, but I felt it was worth the risk, so I read your book on my iPad in stages.
By the time I had paid and was well into the narrative, the intrusive word ‘f—k’ appeared.
This usually puts me off and I delete before it gets any worse. Well, inevitably it did get worse, and we got the full set of profanities as you came across more people on your fascinating journeys.
But the expletives were neatly spaced out, like your tea and coffee breaks, all along the route. So I persevered, and had time to enjoy the scenery and brace myself for the next disagreeable encounter.
The people mostly deserving of praise, it seems, were the dead ones.
All things considered, I thank you for the well researched content and entertainment that helped me through the English Winter.