Down Under: Travels in a Sunburned Country

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The laugh out loud passages on his introduction to cricket I applaud, the game makes as much sense to me as it did to Bill. I think my favourite episode in the whole book is when Bill and his increasingly tetchy companion drive around Darwin several times trying to find a hotel whose name is unaccountably different from the name it went by when he booked it. From ancient fossils on the West coast that can be found there living in small colonies, to the gold rush of 1849, the same time frame as the ones in the USA and Canada. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.

Bryson's books seem so simple - solipsistic narrator, quick tour of country, lots of anecdotes, dash of humour, a few all-embracing conclusions - that some reviewers dismiss the skill with which they are put together. From its defiantly dreary title onwards, Down Under feels like a journey taken at too great a speed on a road well-worn by other, more intrepid travellers, not to mention millions of ordinary, non-writing tourists. There is no shortage of idiots - which is why Down Under will sell thousands more copies than Anglo-Australian Attitudes. Points well made, but just when you thought all was lost she produced a generous conclusion that helps to explain why Bryson gets away with his speed and shapelessness: "Bryson is such an agreeable, warm-hearted and witty companion that I ended up enjoying this book despite its shortcomings. Thanks for not shirking the reports of the incomprehensible attitude of some Australians towards the Aboriginal people, counterbalanced with the accurate recount of the warmth good nature and hospitality of most citizens.I don’t think I will ever again be on my travels, up against an infuriating person, circumstance or chain of events, without wondering what Bill Bryson would make of this.

Bryson is very definitely upper middle class but it is that ability to be Everyman; see what we all see and yet articulate it in a way we cannot; that makes his writing so successful.Bryson dishes out praise and derision in roughly equal measure, so that he comes across as neither overly effusive or curmudgeonly, but it often both, sometimes within the space of a sentence or two. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. For more details, please consult the latest information provided by Royal Mail's International Incident Bulletin.

Illustrated dustwrapper very slightly worn at edges (now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film). His bestselling travel books include The Lost Continent, Notes From a Small Island, A Walk in the Woods and Down Under. The rest of this section is devoted to the author's account of what he considers to be Civilized Australia, with accounts of Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Canberra, the Gold Coast, Surfers Paradise, and many countryside towns in between.Terence Blacker, in the Sunday Times, was more temperate, but still dismissed the book as a hack job: "For someone about to visit Australia, Down Under presents a perfect, accessible introduction to the country, its history and its people. Not so James Urquhart in the Financial Times: "Down Under exhibits a smoother and more mature humour than previous works.

is top of the hardback bestsellers list; it has just been read on Radio 4; the man can clearly do no wrong.Bill Bryson’s assessment of her, the hotel, and the people of Darwin would not look good on Trip Adviser. Ignoring such dangers – and yet curiously obsessed by them – Bill Bryson journeyed to Australia and promptly fell in love with the country. Ignoring such dangers and yet curiously obsessed by them Bill Bryson journeyed to Australia and promptly fell in love with the country. You almost don't feel like you don't need to go and see the Sydney Opera House or journey through the Outback, because Bryson has told you all you need to know. What I enjoy most is the feeling he gives the reader of moving in close to a subject, examining its quirkiest or most singular aspect, then panning out again to take a more distant or panoramic view.