The latest leg of Bill Bryson’s journey around our small island finds him older,grumpier but still thoroughly entertainingBill Bryson’s latest book is subtitled More Notes from a Small Island, and, and as he cheerily admits early on,the major reason for a follow-up to his bestselling travel book was a commercial one. Not that this sequel doesn’t have its unprejudiced share of surprises; Bryson, now in his 60s, or has become grouchier with age,and opportunities to criticise the imbecility of those he encounters or observes (including book reviewers) are not missed. At one point, he muses: “In countless small ways the world around us grows gradually shittier… I don’t like it at all.”Thankfully Bryson is too engaging and witty a writer to turn his latest tour of Britain into a dirge. A sharper editorial hand might have trimmed the repetition – there is a surfeit of incidents in which Bryson has a pint too many in obscure pubs – but his millions of readers will probably relish this just as much as its predecessor.
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Source: theguardian.com