Bill Bryson Totally Explained

Everything about Bill Bryson totally explained

William McGuire "Bill" Bryson, OBE, (born December 8,1951 in Des Moines, Iowa) is a best-selling American author of humorous books on travel, as well as books on the English language and on scientific subjects. He has been a resident of North Yorkshire, England, for most of his adult life, before moving south to Norfolk in 2003.

Life

Bill Bryson was born in Des Moines, Iowa, the son of William and Mary Bryson. He has an older brother, Michael, and a sister, Mary Elizabeth.
   Bryson was educated at Drake University but dropped out in 1972, deciding to backpack around Europe for four months. He returned to Europe the following year with his high-school friend, Stephen Katz (real name Matt Angerer). Some of his experiences from this trip are re-lived as flashbacks in, which documents a similar journey Bryson made twenty years later.
   Bryson first visited England in 1973 during a tour of Europe, and decided to stay after landing a job working in a psychiatric hospital - the now defunct Holloway Sanatorium in Virginia Water, Surrey. It was there that he met a nurse by the name of Cynthia, a native of England who would eventually become his wife. The couple returned to the USA in 1975 so Bryson could complete his college degree, after which, in 1977, they settled in England, where they remained until 1995. Living in North Yorkshire and mainly working as a journalist, Bryson eventually became chief sub editor of the business section of The Times, and then deputy national news editor of the business section of The Independent. He left journalism in 1987, three years after the birth of his third child. Still living in Yorkshire, Bryson started writing independently and in 1990 their fourth and final child, Sam, was born.
   In 1995, Bryson returned to the United States to live in Hanover, New Hampshire for some years, the stories of which feature in his book I'm A Stranger Here Myself, alternatively titled Notes from a Big Country in the United Kingdom and Canada. In 2003, however, the Brysons and their four children returned to England, and now live near Wymondham, Norfolk.
   Also in 2003, in conjunction with World Book Day, voters in the United Kingdom chose Bryson's book Notes from a Small Island as that which best sums up British identity and the state of the nation. In the same year, he was appointed a Commissioner for English Heritage.
   In October of 2004, Bryson was mentioned by James May on the BBC show Top Gear. May denounced the efforts of the Campaign to Protect Rural England and criticised Bryson in particular, saying: "I think that man is a danger, frankly. If there's one thing I can't stand its beardy, sanctimonious, patronising Americans in tartan trousers coming to England and trying to persuade us to turn it into a museum. He wants the East End full of cheeky Cockney chaps pushing wheelbarrows full of eels and he wants northerners to be industrialists in big braces and blokes dying of 'The Consumption'... Bill, if you're watching - you won't be watching, obviously, because we're not talking about steam engines or longboats or bear-baiting - but if you happen to have tuned in by mistake, we're not interested in your views of stupid Americans who come over here with their big video cameras... sod off!"
   In 2004, Bryson won the prestigious Aventis Prize for best general science book with A Short History of Nearly Everything. This 500 page popular literature piece explores not only the histories and current statuses of the sciences, but also reveals their humble and often humorous beginnings. Although one "top scientist" is alleged to have jokingly described the book as "annoyingly free of mistakes", Bryson himself makes no such claim, and a list of reported errors in the book

is available online. In 2005, the book won the EU Descartes Prize for science communication.
   In November 2006, Bryson interviewed Prime Minister Tony Blair on the state of science and education.
   On December 13, 2006, Bryson was awarded an honorary OBE for his contribution to literature. The following year, he was awarded the James Joyce Award of the Literary and Historical Society of University College Dublin.
   In January 2007, Bryson was the Schwartz Visiting Fellow of the Pomfret School in Connecticut.
   In May 2007, he became the President of the Campaign to Protect Rural England. His first area focus in this role was the establishment of an anti-littering campaign across England. He discussed the future of the countryside with Richard Mabey, Sue Clifford, Nicholas Crane and Richard Girling at CPRE's Volunteer Conference in November 2007.

Bibliography

Travel

The Palace Under the Alps and Over 200 Other Unusual, Unspoiled, and Infrequently Visited Spots in 16 European Countries (1985)
(1989)
(1991)
Notes from a Small Island (1995) (travels in the United Kingdom, his farewell to the country he was temporarily leaving; adapted for television by Carlton Television in 1998)

(1998) (co-stars Stephen Katz)

Notes from a Big Country (UK) / I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After Twenty Years Away (US) (1998) (columns about moving back to the USA)

Down Under (UK) / In a Sunburned Country (US) (2000) (travels in Australia)

Bill Bryson's African Diary (2002) (travels in Africa for CARE International, to whom all royalties and profits were donated)

Walk About (2002) (Combined in one volume are Down Under and A Walk in the Woods)

Language

The Penguin Dictionary of Troublesome Words (1984)

The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got That Way (1990)

Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States (1994)

Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words (2002)

Journeys in English (2004) (BBC 4 Radio production, based on The Mother Tongue)

Science

A Short History of Nearly Everything (2003)

Memoir

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid (2006)

Biography

(2007)Further Information

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