An ill-advised trip that is revealing...
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Anyone who has lived in the UK for 20 years, let alone a travel writer, should know better than to attempt to criss-cross the country using only public transport. This is how Mr. Bryson captures one day's travels:
"Thus it was, fourteen hours after setting off from Porthmadog that morning, that I arrived tired, dishevelled, hungry and full of woe, in Blackpool, a place I didn't particularly want to be anyway."
On arrival in Britain's great cities, problems with navigation and locating their glories persisted:
"...but no matter how many times I crisscrossed through its heart, all I seemed to encounter was a vast, glossy new shopping centre that was a damnable nuisance to circumnavigate (I kept ending up, muttering and lost, in dead-end delivery bays and collecting compounds for cardboard boxes) and a single broad endless street with precisely the same stores I had seen in every other city for the last six weeks. It was like anywhere and nowhere..."
And while the months of September and October sound reasonable choices for such a venture, Mr. Bryson chose a year when the weather was against him, which was unfortunate, and clothing which did not keep him dry, which was foolish! Thus he spent half the time soaking wet!
While I share the author's love of OS maps, I am not sure how he coped with their expense or bulk on such a long trip. He also refers to guide books a couple of times, but not in the practical sense of finding a decent place to stay, eat or drink. Instead he chooses in situ, almost at random, and that sadly led to more recipes for disaster!
Towards the end he does succumb to the luxury of a five-star hotel (or two), and who can blame him! But I do have some admiration for the author's attempt to stick to a budget and keep his feet on the ground.
Bill Bryson is reputed to be an amusing writer, but I did not find this book to be very funny. It is more of an extended rant against poor service and appalling inner-city/town planning. If the trip was ill-advised, the conclusions are nonetheless valid, a mirror to the British landscape of the late 20th Century.
Of course there are a few, dare I say exceptional, places which the author finds pleasant and charming. He even claims that these rare jems more than compensated for the average...
The book does say something about cultures - Mr. Bryson was not shy about complaining to those who kept him waiting or ripped him off, etc. which made it all the more embarrassing to read and did not seem to provide any satisfaction! The British no doubt get their dark humour from being less blunt.
What kept me reading was simply curiosity! I would never have known the history of those wonderful buildings in Virginia Water but for this book. Mainly, though, it was the feeling of having a visitor in your home and the secret desire to know what he really though of it!
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Yawn
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An aimless and tedious meander through British life as seen from an outsider's point of view. Some of this book is very funny but it is full of pointless anecdotes and inane drivel. This book is too long and much of it is instantly forgettable. Not good!
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Nostalgic For Me!
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Needing to clear some space on my bookshelves I have decided to reacquaint myself with Bill Bryson's travel books before Bookcrossing them.
This one was first published in 1995 and the edition on my bookshelf in 1998. I enjoyed reading this travelogue of his tour of the good old UK, many places mentioned of which I have visited during my lifetime. The amusing and often irreverent descriptions of familiar places and British habits were in some cases painfully accurate!
Whilst one might not always agree with Bryson's viewpoint it is none the less an amusing read, though one must also accept that in some respects it is dated.
Certainly worth reading if you are at all interested in Great Britain but remember it was written over thirteen years ago and it has changed even more!
Re-reading this made me quite nostalgic at times especially the last few pages and his concluding comments. Currently living away from Great Britain it gave me an interesting reminder of the things, good and bad, that are unique to that small island where I am proud to say I was born.
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The yardstick
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This is one of Bryson's very best and cements his place as the don of travel writing.
The quality and density of his writing, brimming as it is with curious facts and gags, make him simply unbeatable when it comes to this kind of travelogue.
Bryson's greatest skill is that he makes us want to follow him around often-dull and familiar corners of Britain, Europe, Australia and America.
If you're not a fan of the genre, steer clear. But if you like his style this is a must-have.
For those looking for a starting point for this type of travel book, this is as good a place to start as any.
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better than expected read
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Having read the reviews, mostly anti - I finished reading this book and was pleasantly surprised. It seems to me that Bill Bryson was writing about his impressions, feelings, emotions, call it what you will, as he toured this island of ours, and it came over as a love/hate relationship until the end, when he makes it quite clear he loves the place and will be back. I tuned in to his kind of off beat humour quite early and loved it. Definitely a lot of snorts of laughter and a lot of 'yes, recognise that' too.
An enjoyable read.
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