The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson

“I ‘lolled’” ”I enjoyed it “  “it was a good choice”

So that’s it, we did it again, we chose another successful read – but of course we have more to say.

Let’s start with The Bryson Line. What a great idea, Mr Bryson decided to find a line and follow it. Only, we don’t think he did. We think Mr Bryson is a little self-centred and just wanted to get his name on the map AND that he may have already written the book before he put the line in. The Bryson Line was a big disappointment.  But, we still enjoyed the book.

It’s quite educational. We learned a lot. Things like the categorisation of roads in Britain. Who’d have thought it?

And, it’s true to life: people are rude in shops and having read this book we are now so much more aware of the issue. Though in Cuddington Stores they are not rude, they are lovely, so go there.

Swearing doesn’t really add any interest to a book like this. Why does an author feel the need to choose swear words and use them badly? There isn’t really a good variety of words – just a few – and he doesn’t really use them well. While we are at it, we didn’t like the tendency of an old man to muse either. On the other hand, Bill is an author who can poke fun at himself and his own country and that we enjoyed.

So, the honest truth here is that we enjoyed the book overall BUT it annoyed us too. In fact, the start is quite boring and hard to get into. If this hadn’t been a book group book it may have been put down and not picked up again. Because it was a book group read we persevered and the perseverance paid off – it got better!

For a start you find yourself realising you have been there: “Devon Torcross is where we used to go with the children every year”;  “Wittenham Woods are a Sunday favourite” , “Aberystwyth is  actually a lovely place and he over rates Crickhowell”. Just one thing though: It's The Isles of Scilly (please: they are NOT The Scilly Isles they are The Isles of Scilly. You can say Scilly but The Scillies is incorrect too - just saying).  

That said, thank you for sharing so many new places to visit and new books to read (one by Gilbert White sounds fascinating) - we need to plan some book group outings.

In conclusion we thought this book was an exceptional read packed full of things we take for granted in Britain like: nature, countryside and walks with rights of way. It took a foreigner to point this out and he’s right. Not many countries offer the same access to the open land. Even in Ireland you need to take a piece of pipe on walks so that you can put it over barbed wire fences when walking,

Would we recommend this book? Yes!

Our next read is The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins, which we will discuss on Thursday 17^th November at The Hundred of Ashendon.

Quick Ad Break: don’t miss the Literary Festival in Thame over the weekend of 15^th October.