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Notes from a Small Island (Paperback)

by Bill Bryson (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (147 customer reviews)
RRP: £8.99
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Notes from a Small Island + Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe + Notes from a Big Country
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Product details

  • Paperback: 259 pages
  • Publisher: Black Swan; New edition edition (1 Aug 1996)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0552996009
  • ISBN-13: 978-0552996006
  • Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.8 x 2.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (147 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 1,591 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #17 in  Books > Travel & Holiday > Countries & Regions > United Kingdom
    #19 in  Books > Travel & Holiday > Travel Writing
    #20 in  Books > Travel & Holiday > Countries & Regions > Europe

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

Bill Bryson is an unabashed Anglophile who, through a mistake of history, happened to be born and bred in Iowa. Righting that error, he spent 20 years in England before deciding to repatriate: "I had recently read that 3.7 million Americans according to a Gallup poll, believed that they had been abducted by aliens at one time or another, so it was clear that my people needed me." That comic tone enlivens this account of Bryson's farewell walking tour of the countryside of "the green and kindly island that had for two decades been my home."


Product Description

After nearly two decades in Britain, Bill Bryson, the acclaimed author of such bestsellers as "The Mother Tongue" and "Made in America", decided it was time to move back to the United States for a while. This was partly to let his wife and kids experience life in Bryson's homeland - and partly because he had read that 3.7 million Americans believed that they had been abducted by aliens at one time or another. It was thus clear to him that his people needed him. But before leaving his much-loved home in North Yorkshire, Bryson insisted on taking one last trip around Britain, 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 modern-day Britain, and to analyze what he loved so much about a country that had produced Marmite, zebra crossings, and place names like Farleigh Wallop, Titsey, and Shellow Bowells. With wit and irreverence, Bill Bryson presents the ludicrous and the endearing in equal measure. The result is a social commentary that conveys the true glory of Britain.
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Customer Reviews

147 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (147 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Every Brit should read this book - Jolly good show old chap!, 20 Nov 1998
By A Customer
From the moment I picked this book up in WH Smith at Heathrow airport I knew that whatever else happened on my business trip to Istanbul, the journey was already worthwhile.

Bill Bryson has an insightful view of Britain and the British that can only come from living 'among us' for a considerable period.

His understanding of the British people is uncanny and more akin to that of a Brit who has lived in the US for a long time, rather than an American that has lived in Britain.

I spent much of my time while reading the book laughing out loud in public places (which I know is not the done thing for an Englishman - sorry !)

This book asks some of the same qustions I asked when I returned to my native Britain from a period living in the USA.

I finished the book in 2 days and immediately sought out the only English language copy of Bryson's other classic 'Notes from a Big Country' in Istanbul.

But that's another story...

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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Good in parts, 28 Dec 2006
By Nicholas Whyte (Oud Heverlee, Belgium) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Bryson is an American who has lived in England for many years. This book was written in 1994, and shows its age in some respects (reference to the excellent railway system, jokes about Princess Margaret, Princess Diana and the Queen Mother) but remains a very affectionate take on England and the English by a near-insider.

At times his prose rises to the hysterically funny, as in his comparison of the contents of American and British women's magazines in the early 1970s, or the Studland peninsula ("well known as the only place where you can see all seven British reptiles - the grass snake, smooth snake, adder, slow worm, common lizard, sand lizard and Michael Portillo").

Bryson is particularly good on architecture, and excoriates the concreting-over of city centres and the worst excrescences of the twentieth century. Here he is on the Warden's Quarters of Merton College, Oxford:

"What a remarkable series of improbabilities were necessary to its construction. First, some architect had to design it, had to wander through a city steeped in 800 years of architectural tradition, and with great care conceive of a structure that looked like a toaster with windows. Then a committee of finely educated minds at Merton had to show the most extraordinary indifference to their responsibilities to posterity and say to themselves, 'You know, we've been putting up handsome buildings since 1264; let's have an ugly one for a change.' Then the planning authorities had to say, 'Well, why not? Plenty worse in Basildon.'"

He's also very good on hotels, landscapes, food and the general impressions made by a place on the new arrival. He's not very good at getting sympathetic stories from people; most of the characters described in depth are lunatically unhelpful transport officials or hoteliers.

He's also not very good outside England. The Scottish section of the book is surprisingly dull, and the Welsh bits actually offensive (remarks about Asperger's Syndrome, Parkinson's disease, place names that sound like a cat bringing up a hairball).

Anyway, a book that did make me laugh out loud several times, but more in its first half than in its second.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Rib-tickling!, 25 Aug 2004
By H. Dennison "bookworm" (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
My friend bought this book for me to read whilst i travelled solo to the USA.As i had a 7 hour wait in NY airport, i got stuck in to this. I'm sure every Newark Airport worker and visitor at that time thought i was a stark raving English loony! This is a hilarious, tongue-in-cheek book which simultaneously made me cringe with embarrassment (yep, we Brits actually DO the things he says) whilst puffing my chest out in pride at being British! Bryson takes the reader on a tour around Britain venturing from one end of the land to the other and I really felt like i was there with him, through the strife and rain (of course). His narrative is informative (i learnt a heck of a lot about my own country...from an American! Of all people!) and comical. He introduces the reader to typical (and not-so-typical) British folk and ponders over such things as the unanswerable question of 'where have all the red telephone booths gone?'. I never realised that i had such a beautiful, diverse land for exploration on my own doorstep. A hilarious, rib-tickling book which literally did have me snorting aloud with laughter (and consequently ducking my head in embarrassment!).Great for reading whilst on your travels.It MAY make you want to come back home...
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Too flowery
This is billed as the companion to Notes from a Big Country which is a collection of columns talking about life in America that was printed in a British newspaper. Read more
Published 15 days ago by Sulkyblue

4.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully observed
I know a chap who when presented with a cup of tea he rubs his hands and says "Oh lovely". I think of Bill Bryson every time he does it. Read more
Published 21 days ago by Pedro the Llama

2.0 out of 5 stars Get the Bill Bryson read version!!
While I love the book Notes From A Small Island, the BBC recently serialized it, read by Kerry Shale, and I really didn't appreciate Shale's put-on voices. Read more
Published 3 months ago by M. Corey

5.0 out of 5 stars Christopher W Whybrow
"Not a book that should be read in public, for fear of emitting loud snorts" says the Times review. Well I am glad that I have taken this advice. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Christopher W. Whybrow

5.0 out of 5 stars Bill Bryson
Another excellent read from Bill Bryson, he is a brilliantly witty writer with a graet accuracy for detail. I would reccomend any of his books.
Published 4 months ago by M. Simpson

5.0 out of 5 stars Ideal for Brits with a good sense of self deprecating humour!

Having now completed reading three quarters of this book and thoroughly enjoying what I've read so far,and also having read numerous reviews of it I have realized that the... Read more
Published 5 months ago by P. A. Mitchell

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Bill Bryson
I don't often laugh out loud a books but this one had me chuckling often and in tears at one particularly funny section. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Magnus Johnson

1.0 out of 5 stars Tedious and entirely lacking insight
The problem with Bill Bryson is that he's like an irritating uncle that you can't shake off. For a lot of the time he's an old bore with startlingly inane observations and lame... Read more
Published 9 months ago by J A C Corbett

1.0 out of 5 stars Notes from a Small Island
I bought this for my husband who had enjoyed reading Bill Bryson's "A short history of nearly everything" which he loved. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Rosalind Kanter

2.0 out of 5 stars For the adoring fan only
I enjoyed "A Walk in the Woods" and "Shakespeare: the World as a Stage" -- there you get a mix of history, light scholarship, and interactions with colorful characters (past and... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Calcutec

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