Quicklet on Bill Bryson's Notes From a Small Island (CliffNotes-like Summary)

ABOUT THE BOOK

Bill Bryson’s Notes from a Small Island is a quirky, funny book filled with amazing and intriguing details about Britain. I love this book, just as I love all of Bryson’s writing. It reminds me of the first book I read by him – A Walk in the Woods – because it, too, is a travel story that has him ambling around the countryside and reporting his observations.

In fact, he has such a likable voice and an engaging manner that he could walk around the block and still make it fun to read. That’s the wonderful thing about Bryson, and it’s why I love him. He has a wry sense of humor that makes anything interesting, funny, and endearing, and this book about Britain is no exception. You’ll read it and laugh, and at the same time you’ll learn a lot about this country, its history, its politics, and its people. You’ll also learn a lot about Bryson himself, and that’s enjoyable, as well.

The thing about Bryson is that he sees everything through the lens of his own perspective, but that personal perspective never obscures the subject that he’s looking at. The more you learn about him, the more you understand his take on his subject matter. That is exactly what happens in Notes from a Small Island.

MEET THE AUTHOR

professional writer Vivian Wagner has wide-ranging interests, from technology and business to music and motorcycles. She writes features regularly for ECT News Network, and her work has also appeared in American Profile, Entrepreneur, Bluegrass Unlimited, and many other publications. She is also the author of Fiddle: One Woman, Four Strings, and 8,000 Miles of Music (Citadel 2010). For more about her, visit her website at www.vivianwagner.net.

EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK

Notes from a Small Island was published in 1997 as a kind of love story about the country Bryson was getting ready to leave. It’s told as a travel narrative, and in order to write it as such, he travels around the country as a tourist, trying to see it with fresh eyes after having lived there for a number of years as a resident. The book opens with him arriving in England via Calais, just as he arrived years before, and it continues by following him on his journey through the country.

As Publisher’s Weekly says in a review of the book, “his trenchant, witty and detailed observations of life in a variety of towns and villages will delight Anglophiles. Traveling only on public transportation and hiking whenever possible, Bryson wandered along the coast through Bournemouth and neighboring villages that reinforced his image of Britons as a people who rarely complain and are delighted by such small pleasures as a good tea.

In Liverpool, the author's favorite English city, he visited the Merseyside Maritime Museum to experience its past as a great port. Interweaving descriptions of landscapes and everyday encounters with shopkeepers, pub customers and fellow travelers, Bryson shares what he loves best about the idiosyncrasies of everyday English life in this immensely entertaining travel memoir.”

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