Notes From a Small IslandBill Bryson (1995) |
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THE A5 BOOK REVIEWOne of our favorite travelogues is Bill Bryson’s Notes From a Small Island, the irreverent and insightful narration of the trip he took in 1995 exploring all corners of Great Britain. Bryson had lived in the United Kingdom for over twenty years and wanted to fully experience the country before moving back to the United States. Bryson often mixes sarcastic observations of local people with historical information around the places he visits, and there is no shortage of colorful people and history in Britain. He meanders all over the country, almost always by public transportation, with special attention paid to most local pubs. His commentary on the peculiarities of the language comes with a glossary translating British English to American English. In short, the book ultimately is a very funny, endearing and authentic tribute to the humble strength of the British people and the underlying beauty of their country.
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RELATED A5 TRAVEL BOOK RECOMMENDATIONSIn 2016, 20 years after the publication of Notes From a Small Island, Bryson took a second trip around the United Kingdom for his book The Road to Little Dribbling. The books are very similar, but the second travelogue is more focused on how the UK has changed, and less on pure discovery. Those who liked either of these books may also want to read Paul Theroux's The Kingdom of the Sea, a similar travelogue published first in 1983.
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OTHER A5 RECOMMENDATIONS - BILL BRYSON
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Bill Bryson is one of the world's well-known travel writers. Learn more about Bill Bryson here.
GREAT QUOTES FROM NOTES FROM A SMALL ISLAND“...it occurred to me, not for the first time, what a remarkably small world Britain is. That is its glory, you see--that it manages at once to be intimate and small scale, and at the same time packed to bursting with incident and interest. I am constantly filled with admiration at this--at the way you can wander through a town like Oxford and in the space of a few hundred yards pass the home of Christopher Wren, the buildings where Halley found his comet and Boyle his first law, the track where Roger Bannister ran the first sub-four-minute mile, the meadow where Lewis Carroll strolled; or how you can stand on Snow's Hill at Windsor and see, in a single sweep, Windsor Castle, the playing fields of Eton, the churchyard where Gray wrote his "Elegy," the site where The Merry Wives of Windsor was performed. Can there anywhere on earth be, in such a modest span, a landscape more packed with centuries of busy, productive attainment?”
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