Notes from a Small Island - Hardcover

Bryson, Bill

3.91

112,571 ratings by Goodreads

9780385405348: Notes from a Small Island

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385405340 ISBN 13: 9780385405348

Publisher: Doubleday Books, 1995

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From Wikipedia: Bryson wrote Notes from a Small Island when he decided to move back to his native United States, but wanted to take one final trip around Great Britain, which had been his home for over twenty years. Bryson covers all corners of the island observing and talking to people from as far afield as Exeter in the West Country to John O'Groats at the north-eastern tip of Scotland's mainland. During this trip he insisted on using only public transport, but failed on two occasions: in Oxfordshire and on the journey to John O' Groats he had to rent a car. On his way, Bryson provides historical information on the places he visits, and expresses amazement at the heritage in Britain, stating that there were 445,000 listed historical buildings, 12,000 medieval churches, 1,500,000 acres (600,000 ha) of common land, 120,000 miles (190,000 km) of footpaths and public rights-of-way, 600,000 known sites of archaeological interest and that in his Yorkshire village at that time, there were more 17th-century buildings than in the whole of North America. Bryson also pays homage to the humble self-effacing fortitude of British people under trying times such as the World Wars and Great Depression, as well as the various peculiarities of Britain and British English (such as not understanding, on his first arrival, what a counterpane was, and assuming it was something to do with a window, or of first going into an English tobacconist's and hearing the man in front of him ask for "Twenty Number 6", and assuming that everything in Britain was ordered by number). A popular brand at the time was Embassy Regal Number 1, and in British English it is usual to ask for twenty meaning a packet, not twenty of them.

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Review:

Reacting to an itch common to Midwesterners since there's been a Midwest from which to escape, writer Bill Bryson moved from Iowa to Britain in 1973. Working for such places as Times of London, among others, he has lived quite happily there ever since. Now Bryson has decided his native country needs him--but first, he's going on a roundabout jaunt on the island he loves.

Britain fascinates Americans: it's familiar, yet alien; the same in some ways, yet so different. Bryson does an excellent job of showing his adopted home to a Yank audience, but you never get the feeling that Bryson is too much of an outsider to know the true nature of the country. Notes from a Small Island strikes a nice balance: the writing is American-silly with a British range of vocabulary. Bryson's marvelous ear is also in evidence: "... I noted the names of the little villages we passed through--Pinhead, West Stuttering, Bakelite, Ham Hocks, Sheepshanks ..." If you're an Anglophile, you'll devour Notes from a Small Island.

From the Inside Flap:

"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--old churches, country lanes, people saying 'Mustn't grumble' and 'I'm terribly sorry but,' people apologizing to me when I conk them with a careless elbow, milk in bottles, beans on toast, haymaking in June, seaside piers, Ordinance Survey maps, tea and crumpets, summer showers and foggy winter evenings--every bit of it."

After nearly two decades in Britain, Bill Bryson, the acclaimed author of such bestsellers as The Mother Tongue and Made in America, 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 believed that they had been abducted by aliens at one time or another.  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 modern-day Britain, and to analyze what he loved so much about a country that had produced Marmite, zebra crossings, and place names like Farleigh Wallop, Titsey, and Shellow Bowells.

With characteristic wit and irreverence, Bill Bryson presents the ludicrous and the endearing in equal measure.  The result is a hilarious social commentary that conveys the true glory of Britain.

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