Raven's Roads
Living an interesting life: the travels and musings
of motorcycling author Linda R. Moore

Jan 3, 2008

Notes From a Small Island by Bill Bryson

Filed in Reviews

I love this book. I love it because sarcastic Bill Bryson, the first book of whose I read almost put me off him forever, genuinely loves the British Isles. And, because I do too, that makes it an instant hit.

And, besides, it has a wet tea bag on the front cover. ;)

For all his ascerbic wit, though, when the author likes a place, his prose truly sings. In this book, about a solo trip he takes around Great Britain before moving back to the States, he explores many of the places that he’s “always wanted to see” while, presumably in spite of his presumably considerable writing fortune, seeking out experiences that most people could afford.

He’s picky about his accommodations, in that he is not a spendthrift; he does a lot of hiking and almost everything on public transit. In short, this is the kind of tale to which a regular person can relate, and gives a realistic idea of what it’s like to travel, especially on Sundays. ;)

Whether it’s finding artwork from coal mines or looking for mysterious caves with interesting names (he even found one, which is a miracle), Bryson’s travel philosophy seems to mesh well with mine, at least my theoretical one: Go with the flow and see what you find.

What makes this book truly shine for me, however, are his astute observations on the nature of British people, how a simple cup of tea (despite the fact that we, as a nation, drink gallons of the stuff each day) can elicit an “Ooh, lovely!”…how we put up with things like lines and bad weather by saying “Mustn’t grumble.” He really puts his finger on the way we are. Endearing, too, is the story of how he met his wife, and his visit to his mother in law. What is it about mothers, he muses, that makes them able to welcome you in and set you up with a nice bedroom as though you were expected all along?

I hadn’t remembered that the author was an architecture snob, but he surely is. One of the major themes of this book is how hateful some of the architecture is, and how much of Britain’s unique heritage is being lost, bulldozed, made into bigger fields. Some of the most scathing remarks of this book center around skyscrapers. And then, lest he get too serious and philosophical, he throws in some comment that is laugh-out-loud funny.

Definitely recommended!