The Road To Little Dribbling.

In The Road to Little Dribbling Bill Bryson criss-crosses England visiting and revisiting places that are of interest to him. (Rather than making one long epic journey the author takes small day or overnight trips). 

I'm a huge fan of travel writing and used to read a lot of it, but it's a genre of writing that doesn't appear to be all that popular in the U.S. unless it's of the 'traveling to find oneself 'type (at least that's how it appears to me...) 

Bryson writes about travel in the way that I love. There's interesting factual content (I like learning about the background to buildings and places but don't like to get bogged down with history), but it is his keen eye for detail along with his small everyday observations (that are often lol hilarious) that I find so engaging.

This was a book that was given some mixed reviews. I read more than once that Bryson's constant complaining put some readers off but I didn't experience that. For sure he comes across as a little curmudgeonly at times, but not overtly so, and I found some of the incidents when he does to be the most amusing ones in the book.

Being English I found the places he visited interesting and many of the situations he found himself in were relatable to me. There were places here that I knew well and others that I didn't know at all but he sparked my interest in them (There are now some new places on my 'to see list').

I greatly enjoyed Bryson's first book about England, Notes from a Small Island and am pleased to say that twenty years later I also enjoyed his second 'English' book, both books are informative and entertaining. After having read this volume I may well go back and read 'Notes..' once more.

Recommended if you enjoy travel writing.