FLATULENT ANGLOPHILE FROM IOWA SAYS HIS GOODBYES (Notes from a Small Island - Bill Bryson)

Member Name: MagdaDH

Product:	Notes from a Small Island - Bill Bryson
Date:	27/07/05 (482 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: funny, easy reading, reasonably informative

Disadvantages: toilet humour, shallow

I have to say I am not a massive fan of Bryson, I found a lot of his stuff condescending (the European book), boring (Walk in the Wood) or rather adolescent (flatulence based humour); but this was the first book of his that I ever read and it my mind remains his best one (I use it as my bath/toilet book a lot).

'Notes' is essentially an account of a journey that Bryson makes round Great Britain some time in the early 90's after deciding that he will leave UK and go back to the United States. He starts with a recollection of his first arrival in Dover good 20 years before (this *IS* truly hilarious, had me actually laughing out loud, even at the adolescent humour, I have to admit) and then repeats the Calais-Dover journey and continues the tour (mostly by public transport) that takes in - amongst others - London's Wapping; Dorset Coastal Path, Salisbury, Lincoln, Liverpool, Bradford, Port Sunlight, Edinburgh, Inverness and Wick.

There is, as a cover-quoted reviewer noticed, as much of Bryson in this book as of Britain; and I have to say that as much as I enjoyed the 'Britain' element, I wasn't particularly enamoured with the 'Bryson' ones.

Granted, he manages a non-scatological joke from time to time and he is often pleasantly (and Britishly) self-depreciating which lightens the book and gives it a personal angle, so important in any travelogue. I have to admit to nodding several times while reading some of his more sarcastic comments on British peculiarities including saying sorry when somebody steps on your toe and belief that jam and rasins are exciting igredients in a pudding and the fact that NATIONAL Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children was established 60 years after the ROYAL Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

But his political attitudes are annoying: it's not that he is a hard-line conservative, he has a healthy dose of the New-World mistrust of the class system (especially as related to the land-woning aristocracy and their rights) but some of his comments seem naive at best. The worst part of the book is a long and rather ranting story of the London printers' strike at the time of Rupert Murdoch taking over). His obsession with conservation of architecture but especially of the lovely English countryside, verges on pathological.

On the other hand, the book is not just a catalogue of Bryson jokes, there is a lot of rather nicely done if somehow idiosyncratic description there and some chapters are gems of light travel writing. He seems decidedly better at describing cities and town than countryside: I enjoyed his notes on Salisbury, Durham and Morecambe particularly, while the interest in the peculiar, obscure and not-so-well-known was well served by his accounts of places like Saltire or Welbeck Abbey. In his - much too brief for my liking - account of Scotland Bryson seems to fall into the condescending mode he adopted in his book about Europe.

Research in this book is of bit, how to say it, variable quality. On some subjects - the ones he is interested in - Bryson is extremely detailed, on others what seems like purposefully ignorant (his view of Beatrix Potter); but overall I learned some facts I have not known before.

All in all, 'Notes from the Small Island' present an informative, personal and mostly warm portrait of this island and its inhabitants. Bryson shows the British how lovable they really are and how quirkily interesting, beautiful and worth knowing their land is; and he does a decent enough job of it especially as the whole thing is injected with vast quantities of the quality so admired by the natives: humour. If you are British (and especially English!) you will be mostly flattered: he is a true Anglophile after all.

'Kingdom by the Sea' or 'How to be an Alien' it ain't but you could do worse when choosing a British themed travelogue/humour book and if you like Bryson as an author and are not familiar with this title, you will almost certainly love it. For those who are Bryson virgins, it's a good place to start your acquaintance with the author if you ever have such a desire.

Some of the content is slightly dated, but for now the book is still reasonably viable and not just a historical record.

Overall, recommended as light entertainment (good bath/toilet book) but don't expect beautiful prose nor deep insights.

It's available on Amazon for £6.39 (paperback) or from marketplace for 1 penny (plus postage of £2.75 to the UK).

Summary: British themed travelogue/humour book from the Bill Bryson perspective