This long-overdue ‘booket-list’ read is Bill Bryson’s 1995 farewell to the UK before moving back to the USA. After a two-decade sojourn in Britain, during which he married and started a family, he picks an eclectic mix of places to visit. Using mainly public transport and low-budget accommodation he zig-zags north from Dover to John O’Groats before returning to his home in the Yorkshire Dales.
En route he exercises his wit and erudition in recounting his travels, the places he goes and the people he meets. Corporatisation of the town centres, decline of resorts, illogical transport connections, and rude people all get a withering tongue-lashing. But he also waxes lyrical on the delightful eccentricities, the charm, and beauty that he finds in the country that, he finally admits, he likes very, very much.
As always with
Bryson it is funny, with laugh out loud lines, but also insightful and
intere4sting.
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