Road to Little Dribbling (Bryson)

Book Reviews
Although he's now entering what he fondly calls his "dotage"…Bryson seems merely to have sharpened both his charms and his crotchets…. [H]e remains devoted to Britain's eccentric place names as well as its eccentric pastimes…. He's still apt to seek out the obscure.
Alida Becker - New York Times Book Review


Bryson’s capacity for wonder at the beauty of his adopted homeland seems to have only grown with time.... Britain is still his home four decades later, a period in which he went from lowly scribe at small-town British papers to best-selling travel writer. But he retains an outsider’s appreciation for a country that first struck him as "wholly strange...and yet somehow marvelous."
Griff Witte - Washington Post


[Y]ou could hardly ask for a better guide to Great Britain than Bill Bryson. Bryson’s new book is in most ways a worthy successor and sequel to his classic Notes From A Small Island. Like its predecessor, The Road to Little Dribbling is a travel memoir, combining adventures and observations from his travels around the island nation with recounting of his life there, off and mostly on, over the last four decades. Bryson is such a good writer that even if you don’t especially go in for travel books, he makes reading this book worthwhile.
Nancy Klingener - Miami Herald


Fans should expect to chuckle, snort, snigger, grunt, laugh out loud and shake with recognition…a clotted cream and homemade jam scone of a treat.
Sunday Times (UK)


At its best as the history of a love affair, the very special relationship between Bryson and Britain. We remain lucky to have him.
Matthew Engel - Financial Times (UK)

 
We have a tradition in this country of literary teddy bears—John Betjeman and Alan Bennett among them—whose cutting critiques of the absurdities and hypocrisies of the British people are carried out with such wit and good humour that they become national treasures. Bill Bryson is American but is now firmly established in the British teddy bear pantheon.... The fact that this wonderful writer can unerringly catalogue all our faults and is still happy to put up with us should make every British reader’s chest swell with pride.
Jake Kerridge - Sunday Express (UK)
 
 
There were moments when I snorted out loud with laughter while reading this book in public... He can be as gloriously silly as ever.
London Times
 

Everybody loves Bill Bryson, don’t they? He’s clever, witty, entertaining, a great companion... his research is on show here, producing insight, wisdom and startling nuggets of information... Bill Bryson and his new book are the dog’s bollocks.
Independent on Sunday (UK)
 

Stuffed with eye-opening facts and statistics.... Bryson's charm and wit continue to float off the page....Recognising oneself is part of the pleasure of reading Bryson's mostly affable rants about Britain and Britishness.
Daily Mail (UK)


We go to him less for insights—though there are plenty of these—and more for the pleasure of his company. And he can be very funny indeed. Almost every page has a line worth quoting.
Glasgow Herald


At last, Bill Bryson has got back to what he does best—penning travel books that educate, inform and will have you laughing out loud... I was chuckling away by page four and soaking up his historic facts to impress my mates with. Sure to be a bestseller.
Sun (UK)


Bryson has no equal. He combines the charm and humour of Michael Palin with the cantankerousness of Victor Meldrew and the result is a benign intolerance that makes for a gloriously funny read.
Daily Express (UK)


As usual, [Bryson] scatters an entertaining mix of wacky anecdotes and factoids.... His wry observations and self-deprecating humor keep him from coming off as a bitter cynic, and his lyrical way with words keeps the pages turning.
Publishers Weekly


Bryson complements his expansive repertoire with a revisit of Great Britain, reflecting on his experiences over the past several decades as a British immigrant as he travels "The Bryson Line" from southern England to the northernmost point of Scotland.... Britain and all its quirks. —Lacy S. Wolfe, Ouachita Baptist Univ. Lib. Arkadelphia, AR
Library Journal


(Starred review.) This being Bryson, one chuckles every couple of pages, of course, saying, "yup, that sounds about right."... He clearly adores his adopted country. There are no better views, finer hikes, more glorious castles, or statelier grounds than the ones he finds, and Bryson takes readers on a lark of a walk across this small island with megamagnetism.
Booklist


[A]nother fascinating cross-country jaunt [with Bryson].... No words are minced or punches pulled where he finds social decline.... However, the majority of his criticisms bear his signature wit, and the bulk of his love/hate relationship with Britain falls squarely on the love side.... [E]ntertaining and educational.
Kirkus Reviews