After living in England for the past twenty years or so, Bill Bryson, funny man and travel writer, has decided to move his family to the land of mega shopping centers, hamburgers the size of babies’ heads and wide open spaces – AKA: America. As a grand farewell and sort of tribute to this beloved country, Bryson begins a several month-long trek through his beloved home one last time. Starting at Dover and winding his way through cities and villages large and small, Bryson tracks his way up to the northern reaches of Scotland by way of railway, foot, and car. We are treated to Bryson’s musings every step of the way on all things English – including some of my favorites: the British ability to queue, their ability to get enjoyment out of unspectacular food, and most amusing: their unfailing politeness. The best phrase to remember if you ever visit grand old England is “I’m sorry, but...” whether it is your fault or not for the inconvenience.Really this is less a travel book than an explanation on what makes the British, well, British. Bryson softly pokes fun at the culture and people he has come to love so much and in such a way that makes them dear to your heart as well. I really wish I had read this book prior to visiting Britain – it would have been wonderful to discover some of the lesser known treasures that Bryson chanced upon himself. I listened to this book and the reader was fantastic: perfect comedic timing – in a very British, deadpan sort of way. ( )

I would have expected a book about travelling in the UK to be boring, but it was anything but and I imagine it would be a valuable resource to take with you if you were venturing into the same places Bryson visited. Some very funny bits, I love the way he writes. ( )

Also cranky and fun. ( )

I laughed out loud frequently while enjoying this book, which is an account of some of the author's travel experiences; after living in Great Britain for almost 20 years, he decides to take a farewell trip around the island, prior to his move back to America. While I was primarily interested in the book based on the location, the author's sharp insight and appreciation of the ridiculous provide the reader with an enjoyable reading experience and some familiar human struggles, regardless of their level of familiarity with the setting. ( )

A lovely travel description by the most humorous writer (in my opinion) of trips and experiences in the United Kingdom. As usual, lovely writing, funny anecdotes. Another great Bryson book. ( )

My first experience with Bryson. Hilarious! Got a little tedious in parts as it is the same thing over and over at time. Rough language. Great picture of the UK, though, and so funny! ( )

makes me want to travel, see everything, watch people, laugh at odd traditions and just enjoy what you get ( )

Bryson's travel writing is brilliant, funny - and non better than his look at his adopted country. More on the UK now you're back, please, Bill! ( )

Last summer I was reading one of Fabio Volo’s witty love stories,"IL GIORNO IN PIU' ", and I discovered that all around the world there are nice cafés called Starbucks where you can comfortably sit and just have coffee – especially long American coffee, big mugs of it – reading, writing, or just looking around for hours if you like. The atmosphere he described was so inviting I heartly wished to go to one of those cafeterias somewhere in the world some day. It came true and I found myself alone in a Starbuck’s café in London about 3 weeks ago during the Easter holidays. Why am I telling you about that? Because I read part of the book I want to tell you about just in that place, for 2 hours, sipping a very huge quantity of English/American coffee. I was sitting there alone waiting - unlike Fabio Volo who was waiting for a beautiful Italian girl in New York to make her a surprise- for my husband and son who were visiting the Stanford Bridge, the stadium of the Chelsea football club. So, all alone there, I spent some time leafing through Bill Bryson’s NOTES FROM A SMALL ISLAND, which I finally completed last night. It was odd to read this travel book about England, written by an American journalist/writer, while I was an Italian tourist visiting London for some days…
After nearly two decades in Britain, Bill Bryson, took the decision to move back to the States for a while, to let his kids experience life in another country, to give his wife the chance to shop until 10 p.m. seven nights a week, and, most of all, because he had read that 3.7 million Americans believed that they had been abducted by aliens at one time or another, and it was thus clear to him that his people needed him (!)
Bill Bryson is considered a master of witty prose and indeed he made me amile more than once and laugh out loud even at some of his humorous anecdotes. He tells about his last trip around Britain before leaving his much-loved home in North Yorkshire, 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 the nation's public face and private parts and to analyse what precisely it was he loved so much about a country which had been home to him for so long.
A short excerpt from pp. 98-99 of 1995 edition:
"One of the charms of the British is that they have so little idea of their own virtues, and nowhere is this more true than with their happiness. You will laugh to hear me say it, but they are the haappiest people on earth. Honestly. Watch any two Britons in conversation and see how long it is before they smile or laugh over some joke or pleasantry. It won't be more than a few seconds. (...) I used to be puzzled by the curious British attitude to pleasure, and that tireless, dogged optimism of theirs that allowed them to attach an upbeat turn of phrase to direct inadequacies - 'well, it makes a change', 'mustn't grumble', 'you could do worse','it's not much, but it's cheap and cheerful', 'it's quite nice REALLY' - but gradually I came round to their way of thinking and my life has never been happier. I remember myself sitting in damp clothes in a cold café on a dreary seaside promenade and being presented a cup of tea and a teacake and going 'Oooh, lovely!', and I knew the process had started". ( )

What an utterly wonderful way to travel a country, vicariously. Bryson's humor is disarming, and his writing clean and easy to read. The way he describes the various parts of the country clearly demonstrates that he loves this England that he lived in for ten years, loves it enough to treat it with both praise and affectionate criticism. Whether he is extolling the virtues of certain under-appreciated areas, or sharply undermining cities that he finds obnoxious or well below expectations, you almost have the feeling of a parent towards a child, both praising and admonishing. Bryson doesn't shy away from his own faults and virtues either; many anecdotes focus on the close and personal, relating almost all the geography he traverses to his own life in some way. This correlation makes the experience much more human and intimate.

I haven't read a travel essay in a long time, and those I did read weren't even from this century, so this was a new reading experience. I loved it! Who knew that nonfiction could be so engrossing? (Sorry, nonfiction fans, that's just my personal bias of fiction coming out.) I will definitely be reading more by Bryson. In fact, I think if I do another book challenge, I will create a travel category. The only bad thing about reading this book was that now I want to go to England, and see all the places for myself! ( )

This travelogue examines Great Britain from the perspective of a twenty-year resident who will soon be leaving it to return to America and wants to take it all in one last time. In many cases, Bryson's assessments of his last looks at his adopted country are laugh-out-loud funny, possessing the charm and good humour of traditional British wit alongside an American sensibility of knowing when to dig a little harder (even, sometimes, at himself). Unlike some travel guides, the book is not an effort to explain in thorough detail the best and worst things to see and do in travelling across Britain, but many readers will come away feeling like they've discovered at least one extra little hamlet or village to add to their list of places to visit. However, you also get a good sense of Britain as a place to live in terms of how the British themselves experience and inhabit their "small island" space. Sometimes the observations are obvious, and sometimes Bryson seems to notice the same things (architecture, bizarre hotel practices, the inaccessibility of public transport on Sundays) in each of the places he visits, but overall, the presentation is an honest look at a Britain that is not perfect, but that you can't help but love anyway. If you have any affinity for this little corner of the globe, the book is a jolly good read. ( )

I read this when Ray and I were in England and laughed my head off the whole time, stopping a million times and asking Ray if I "could read hiM just one more passage." On the plane ride home, I started the book over again as I couldn't bear to part from it! Now I have read a lot more of Bryson's books and they almost always make me laugh out loud. He is very self-mocking and just cracks me up. ( )

Bill Bryson is American. Bill Bryson moved to England in 1973. Bill Bryson met an English girl, married and settled in England to raise a family. Bill Bryson took his family back to America after several years in Britain. Bill Bryson wrote a book about Britain to mark his stay here.

Doesn't sound exactly riveting, does it? And yet, Bill Bryson has the British observed down to their little fingernails. His dry comments on the "delights" of living here, from eating out, taking a train, reversing in a multi-storey car park, landladies, menus, pubs, "the best route to..." - had me in stitches. Any Brit with a sense of humour will love this book.

Excerpt:

Eventually, when the intricacies of B-roads, contraflow blackspots and good places to get a bacon sandwich have been discussed so thoroughly that your ears have begun to seep blood, one member of the party will turn to you and idly ask ... when you were thinking of setting off. When this happens, you must never answer truthfully and say, in that kind of dopey way of yours, 'Oh, I don't know, about ten, I suppose,' because they'll all be off again.
'Ten o'clock?' one of them will say and try to back his head off his shoulders. 'As in ten o'clock a.m.?' He'll make a face like someone who's taken a cricket ball in the scrotum but doesn't want to appear wimpy because his girlfriend is watching. 'Well, it's entirely up to you of course, but personally if I was planning to be in Cornwall by three o'clock tomorrow, I'd have left yesterday.'
'Yesterday?', someone else will say, chortling softly at this misplaced optimism.

Oh, and Americans, though not understanding a whole lot of it, should love it too, just as we Brits adore Bryson on the subject of his native land and his odyssies through it. Travel book? Humour? Journal? Anthropology? Who cares, just read it! ( )

If you enjoy Bill Bryson's humour, you'll probably love this half-sarcastic, half-nostalgic look at England. About to head back to America after years of living in Great Britain, Bryson sets off on a lengthy tour of England's cities, villages, and unknown attractions. One is never quite sure how much of the story is true, but he captures the spirit of a place so well that it almost doesn't matter. Although I can't vouch for the accuracy of his comments on 1970s England, they add a wonderful touch to the stories, and throughout the book there is a thread of American bewilderment at the entire country that I can certainly identify with. ( )

An enjoyable look at England, Scotland, and Wales from someone who obviously loved his time living there. Still, I suppose I expected something a bit more...comprehensive. Bryson's trip is less a complete look at Great Britain and its people than it is a wistful goodbye to favorite and not-so-favorite places, with a few exploratory excursions thrown in for good measure. Rather than being a definitive look at Britain, it settles for being an eclectic one. ( )

A lot of fun. Story of his first long visit to Britain. Lots of interesting ancedotes and personal stories. ( )

I have to agree with Kay Dekker, I couldn't gt through this book and it's the second one by this author that I've tried. Guess I'm not one of his fans.

Athe only funny line I heard was when he explained why he was taking public transit because his wife wouldn't let him take the car. ( )

I'm sorry to have to say that I loathed this book. It's almost as though Bryson had deliberately set out to find examples of every cliché and misperception that Americans (are supposed to) have about the UK. I oscillated rapidly between feeling insulted and patronised. It saddens me that someone who has lived here for more than 20 years, and who seems to proclaim his love for the UK on every other page, can trot out such cheap and threadbare stuff. Is all his other travel writing like this? ( )

Journal entry 3 by SKingList from New York, New York USA on Monday, February 28, 2005

BC just ate my entry, and it was a long one too.

They are a central part of what makes England England. Without them, it would just be Indiana with steeples.

That line, and others like it are what make Bryson Bryson and set him apart from the legion of other travel writers. What I like about Notes, that I also liked about NHNT is that he weaves stories of different trips together, a nice way to see how the country has changed without relying on "That was then and this is now..."

I adore Bryson, always have. If you haven't already read it, another author who pulls off some Bryson qualities without trying to be Bryson is Brad Newsham. Take Me With You was a great read and I recommend it to Bryson fans. ( )

Love it ( )

This guy's books just crack me up. I could read his book forever.

Back Cover Blurb:
As an athlete would do a lap of honour, Bryson embarks on a farewell round trip of Britain, the island that had been his home for the last 20 years. His decision to repatriate was prompted by a Gallup poll that said 3.7 million Americans believed that they had been abducted by aliens. Obviously his country needed him. ( )

Probably uproariously funny for someone who knows more about English culture than I do. As it is, I found it tedious and not nearly as much fun as The Mother Tongue. Perhaps I will give this one away.

When I first read this book several years ago, I was helpless with laughter by the end of the first chapter. Re-reading it again just recently, I was pleased to learn that the inadvertant snorts, chuckles and guffaws were just as plentiful the second time around. For that reason, I don't recommend reading this book in public, but I definitely recommend reading it! Bryson's tour of Britain is an affectionate look at the positive, negative and inexplicable traits of the English people (not to mention the Scots and the Welsh). ( )

Frankly disappointing. It starts of interesting enough, but apart from occasional humor observations, Bryson sinks into a monotone of recollections that only a true Anglophile would possibly enjoy. I stopped reading 60 pages in. I really enjoyed other Bryson titles (see list); this was a bust for me. ( )

I first picked this book up almost a year ago, motivated by a recent vacation to and a general love of England. School and life intruded on my personal reading, and as a result this book fell by the wayside for a bit, but when I picked it up again recently I flew right through it, laughing most of the way. If you've read Bill Bryson before, you know what you'll find here. Bryson has a dry, subtle humor and a genuine affection for England that shines through on every page. After finishing the book, I not only felt like I'd seen more of England than I actually had, but I've been seized with an intense desire to travel there again. This always happens when I read travel books, but particularly so with Bill Bryson. If you're looking for a kick in the pants to get you travelling, Bill Bryson could be just the thing in my experience! ( )