Bill Bryson

“I know this goes without saying, but Stonehenge really was the most incredible accomplishment. It took five hundred men just to pull each sarsen, plus a hundred more to dash around positioning the rollers. Just think about it for a minute. Can you imagine trying to talk six hundred people into helping you drag a fifty-ton stone eighteen miles across the countryside and muscle it into an upright position, and then saying, 'Right, lads! Another twenty like that, plus some lintels and maybe a couple of dozen nice bluestones from Wales, and we can party!' Whoever was the person behind Stonehenge was one dickens of a motivator, I'll tell you that.”
― Bill Bryson, Notes from a Small Island

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About Bill Bryson

In our humble opinion, the world needs more people like Bill Bryson. Born in Iowa in the early 1950's, Bryson is one of today's most popular travel writers, best known for his fantastic and often self-deprecating sense of humor and his blunt insightful observations on life. Expect to laugh out loud repeatedly. One of his first books, The Lost Continent: Travels in Small Town America, summarizes his 14,000 mile road trip through the heart of the United States and his experience with real everyday Americans along the way. Bryson moved to England in 1977 where he lived for almost twenty years, and so his comparisons between English and American culture are especially funny. He rose to prominence with Notes from a Small Island, his hilarious account of a final trip across all corners of the United Kingdom, using his travels as a backdrop for insights into the amazing history of this part of the world. He later published I'm A Stranger Here Myself, a collection of articles written for a British newspaper on the experience of repatriation to the United States. He is perhaps best known for A Walk in the Woods, the story of his decision to attempt to hike the 2,200 mile Appalachian Trail while in his forties.

All of his books are also very well researched, with detailed background on the history of each place he visits. Bryson is really a modern day Mark Twain, with a blend of wit, insight, satire and self-deprecating humor that will make you want to read everything he has written. Bill Bryson was also the guest editor of the inaugural edition of The Best American Travel Writing series, published in 2000. If you want to understand travel writing, start with Bill Bryson.