Bill Bryson

I know I've said this before, but were there to be a public vote for "The Greatest Living Brit", I would vote for Bill Bryson.

Indeed his continued outsider's enthusiasm for all things British, when compared to our own dawn to dusk whingeing, was one of the inspirations for attempting to do 365 "in praise ofs" in the first place.

It's a long time ago now that Bill flew straight to the top of the book charts, announcing himself to the world with the first chapter of "The Lost Continent" published in Granta (1989 in fact). I can still remember giggling uncontrollably at the first few paragraphs and making a note to buy the book. His ability to be effortlessly and warmly funny is an incredibly difficult job to pull off - I have shelves of half-read travel books from people who have tried and failed. His page on an Italian parking in "Neither Here Nor There" is right up there with Jerome K Jerome.

These days he writes readable history books (almost an oxymoron) for the masses which have one minor problem. I read "A Short History of Nearly Everything" in two days flat - the pages turning quicker than a Stieg Larsson. However the only thing I remember from all its amazing stories, and characters is that Americans spent a hundred years searching for the volcanic crater that must be in Yellowstone somewhere, before finally realising that Yellowstone itself was the crater.

I'm currently just as rapidly flying through his latest book - supposedly a tour of his home - but have already lost count of the number of inventors, builders, and sundry feckless geniuses who've done great things and died penniless we've been introduced to on about three dizzying tours of the world, and we're only on the ground floor of his house.




‎"I come from Des Moines. Someone had to.

When you come from Des Moines you either accept the fact without question and settle down with a local girl named Bobbi and get a job at the Firestone factory and live there for ever and ever, or you spend your adolescence moaning at great length about what a dump it is and how you can't wait to get out, and then you settle down with a local girl named Bobbi and get a job at the Firestone factory and live there for ever and ever."


.