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Bill Bryson
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| Bill Bryson |
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Bill Bryson was born in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1951, but went to England as a young man and stayed for nearly twenty years. After working for two years in a psychiatric hospital, he went into journalism, eventually becoming chief copy editor of the business section of the Times and then deputy national news director of the business section of the Independent. In 1987, he quit newspapers to become a full-time writer.
His books include travel memoirs Neither Here Nor There, The Lost Continent and two books on language, Made in America and Mother Tongue, a bestseller in the United States and a Main Choice of the Book of the Month Club. His books have been translated into about a dozen languages, and all have been bestsellers in Britain, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, and Canada. Bill Bryson's most recent books are Notes from a Small Island, one of the best-selling travel books ever published in the United Kingdom, and the runaway New York Times bestseller, A Walk in the Woods.
Bryson contributes regularly to National Geographic and National Geographic Traveler, and writes a weekly column on American affairs for the London Mail on Sunday newspaper. He has also written for Esquire, GQ, Granta, Outside, Conde Nast Traveler, Travel & Leisure, Bon Appetit, Sports Illustrated, the New York Times Magazine, and many other publications throughout the English-speaking world.
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Like many of his generation, Bill Bryson backpacked across Europe in the early seventies — in search of enlightenment, beer, and women. Twenty years later he decided to retrace the journey he undertook in the halcyon days of his youth. The result is Neither Here Nor There, an affectionate and riotously funny pilgrimage from the frozen wastes of Scandinavia to the chaotic tumult of Istanbul, with stops along the way in Europe's most diverting and historic locales. Like many of his generation, Bill Bryson backpacked across Europe in the early seventies—in search of enlightenment, beer, and women. Twenty years later he decided to retrace the journey he undertook in the halcyon days of his youth. The result is Neither Here Nor There, an affectionate and riotously funny pilgrimage from the frozen wastes of Scandinavia to the chaotic tumult of Istanbul, with stops along the way in Europe's most diverting and historic locales.
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| Best American Travel Writing, The |
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Bill Bryson
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The extraordinary popularity of books and magazines dedicated to travel comes as no surprise, given that more and more Americans are traveling each year for business, pleasure, and especially adventure. Our fascination with travel has never been so well represented as in this new addition to the Best American series: a wide-ranging compendium of the best travel writing published in 1999, culled from more than three hundred magazines, newspapers, and Web sites. This first collection of The Best American Travel Writing reads like a good novel. Best-selling author Bill Bryson and series editor Jason Wilson have put together a book that will surprise knowledgeable travelers and entrance newcomers with the glories of new worlds. Articles by such well-loved writers as Bill Buford and Ryszard Kapuscinski are included, as are those by exciting new voices. Ranging across myriad landscapes, from Central Park in New York City to the Ouadane oasis in Saharan Mauritania, The Best American Travel Writing 2000 showcases the diversity and creative power of travel writing today.
The inaugural editions of The Best American Travel Writing reads like a good novel, conveying both the surface identity of places around the world and their intrinsic character. In choosing only pieces of the highest quality, best-selling author Bill Bryson and series editor Jason Wilson have put together a book that will surprise knowledgeable travelers and entrance beginners with the glories of new worlds and experiences.
Articles by such well-loved writers as Bill Buford, Tim Cahill, Dave Eggers, David Halberstam, Isabel Hilton, Jessica Maxwell, P.J. O'Rourke, and William T. Vollman are included , as are those by exciting new voices. Ranging widely across myriad topics - drinking the first drink of the day, breaking down in the middle of the desert, picking up hitchhikers in Cuba, playing golf in Greenland, smuggling cheese from France, witnessing the birth of a new state - "The Best American Travel Writing 2000" showcases the diversity and creative wonder of travel writing today.
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This book celebrates the character and richness of the English landscape. From the sweeping stretches of sandy coast in Northumberland to the high peaks of Helvellyn and Scalfell Pike in the Lake District, from the rolling hills of the South Downs to the granite cliffs of the Cornish coast, the English landscape is immensely varied and distinctive.
Nowhere else in the world is such extraordinary variety crammed into such a small space. The moors and mountains, fields and farms, the rivers, canals and woodland, the coast, towns and cities all combine to produce a landscape that is sometimes splendid, sometimes cluttered but never without a character that is special to its locality.
Bill Bryson, well known for his quirky insights into the character of the British and his love of the country, provides an extended introduction. This sets the tone for 27 passionate and informed contributions from writers who care deeply about England and who have a special affinity with one particular area. There are more than 100 other descriptions of every corner of England, showing how each is special in its scenery, wildlife, environment and history.
The book is illustrated throughout with color photographs and maps. The English Landscape is indispensable for anyone who cares about England's most precious asset.
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Compared to his Australian excursions, Bill Bryson had it easy on the Appalachian Trail. Nonetheless, Bryson has on serveral occasions embarked on seemingly endless flights bound for a land where Little Debbies are scarce but insects are abundant (up to 220,000 species of them), not to mention the crodiles.
Taking readers on a rollicking ride far beyond packaged-tour routes, In A Sunburned Country introduces a country where interesting things happen all the time, from a Prime Minister who was lost at sea while swimming at a Victoria beach to Japanese cult members who managed to set off an atomic bomb unnoticed on their 500,000-acre property. Leaving no Vegemite unsavored, readers will accompany Bryson as he dodges jellyfish while learning to surf at Bondi Beach, discovers a fish that can climb trees, dehydrates in deserts where the temperatures leap to 140 degrees, and tells the true story of the rejected Danish architect who designed the Sydney Opera House.
Published just in time for the Olympics, In A Sunburned Country provides a singularly intriguing, wonderfully wacky take on a glorious, adventure-filled locale.
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In the early fall of 2002, famed travel writer Bill Bryson journeyed to Kenya at the invitation of CARE International, the charity dedicated to working with local communities to eradicate poverty around the world. He arrived with a set of mental images of Africa gleaned from television broadcasts of low-budget Jungle Jim movies in his Iowa childhood and a single viewing of the film version of Out of Africa. (Also with some worries about tropical diseases, insects, and large predators.) But the vibrant reality of Kenya and its people took over the second he deplaned in Nairobi, and this diary records Bill Bryson's impressions of his trip with his inimitable trademark style of wry observation and curious insight. From the wrenching poverty of the Kibera slum in Nairobi to the meticulously manicured grounds of the Karen Blixen house and the human fossil riches of the National Museum, Bryson registers the striking contrasts of a postcolonial society in transition. He visits the astoundingly vast Great Rift Valley; undergoes the rigors of a teeth-rattling journey to Mombasa and a hair-whitening flight through a vicious storm; and visits the refugee camps and the agricultural and economic projects where dedicated CARE professionals wage noble and dogged war against poverty, dislocation and corruption.
Though brief in compass and duration, Bill Bryson's African Diary is rich in irreverent, poignant and morally instructive observation. Like all of this author's work, it can make the reader laugh, think, and, especially, feel, all at the same time.
Illustrated with color photographs by Jenny Matthews.
All royalties and profits from this book will be donated to CARE International.
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