Bill Bryson's second guide to our small island is called The Road to Little Dribbling. It's not really a guide as it doesn't attempt to be geographically fair - Wales gets a chapter, and Scotland barely that, which would be a scandal if it were a tourist guide. It is more of a deliciously observed travelogue where Bill's curry and beer is just as important as the architecture, landscape and history of a place. It's brilliantly funny of course and we recognise ourselves in many of the encounters. If ever there was an advert for immigration it's Bill's ability to both inhabit a nation but still look on wryly as if he has only just landed from planet America. Now he has been here so long he can return the compliment when he visits there and his observations of Texas are equally funny and frightening in the current political climate.
Conceptually this book appears lazy in that it plays into the publisher's hands of repeating a known formula. In fact Britain (particularly England) has changed so much since Bill last wrote about it that the past may as well be a different country. I'm not sure if the fictional village of Little Dribbling is a reference to Bill's advancing years or a comment on the nation state. I prefer to see Bill as the happy rotund figure from Skeggy on the cover of the book but I had to settle for a picture from the Rocket League due to most publishers' insane desire to control imagery associated with their authors. Maybe it's more appropriate though given the Bryson family history with sports commentary.
