The Road to Little Dribbling: Adventures of an American in Britain

Name: The Road to Little Dribbling: Adventures of an American in Britain
SKU: 7931
Availability: InStock

4.2 | 19,182 ratings

Price: 19.69

Last update: 06-04-2024

Top reviews from the United States

cag2012

Really don't understand the negative reviews

Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2016

I had always compared Bill Bryson's "Notes from a Small Island," which utterly delighted me and was one of the most hilarious and captivating books I've ever read, to Paul Thereoux's "The Kingdom by the Sea," which makes Britain out to be the most unfortunate and horrible place on the entire planet.

Into my comparison comes the new "The Road to Little Dribbling." Or, perhaps, I should not say new. Although I had it set for pre-order on my Kindle for some time and read it pretty much immediately after it downloaded, it has, apparently, been out for some months in other formats, because Bryson has antiquated publishers. I was one of the people who clicked on (perhaps multiple times) the tell the publisher you want to read this on Kindle link for "Notes." So wake up, publishers -- perhaps you would have had more serious fans reviewing the book sooner if you had released it at the same time for ebooks as you did for dead tree books.

Anyway. As I read this, I became aware in a way that I had not while reading "Notes," that it is possible that the Thereoux of his time and the Bryson of "Little Dribbling" were equally crotchety old men, both finding reasons to be irritated by incompetent and/or stupid people they met along their travels. But even if they were, Thereoux is either one of the most humorless writers of all time, or imbued with such a dry sarcasm that I -- who feel myself to have a pretty high sarcasm meter -- picked up on absolutely none of it. Also, while Bryson seems to have met with an equal mix of incompetent/stupid people, he also met with a reasonable range of coherent/interesting/clever ones, in the course of "Little Dribbling."

Also, any increased crochetiness was basically forgiven because this is, hands-down, the book I have laughed out loud reading more than any other, as I tore through it in the course of two days. I travel to Britain every year, so perhaps the jokes and the subtle humor are closer to home for me, but they were absolutely spot-on, and absolutely hilarious.

I love reading when Bryson writes about Britain because I think he feels the same way I do about the place -- that it is filled with idiosyncratic but lovely people, and that it has so much amazingly beautiful landscape that needs to be preserved. It is a place you love wholeheartedly, while simultaneously understanding that it is, in many ways, ridiculous.

I gather some people were unhappy about the amount of time spent on Scotland and Wales. Don't get me wrong, Bryson could probably do a whole book on Scotland or Wales and I would find it endlessly amusing, BUT, what he generally did was stick to a fair amount of well-known tourist routes and locales, which does differ from "Notes." Frankly, because I had just been to a lot of these places, I found it more interesting. I didn't 100% agree with him all of the time, but I appreciated his perspective.

And the fundamental theme of his book, and what I have felt is the fundamental theme of Britain, is that there is just too damn much to see in any one visit, or any one route. So much has happened there, and there are so many preserved sites, and so many museums, that I go there every year for 2.5 weeks, and still have not seen a fraction of what I want to see. So from personal experience, I can understand if he started in the south and encountered most of a book's worth of material before hitting Yorkshire.

I will say that the title, while amusing and wholly British, had no context within the actual book, so far as I remember. I got to the acknowledgements and there was some note about it, and I was like, "wait, that was never actually mentioned in the text." However, this was so amusing, and I was so eager to see Bryson's writing about Britain again, that I probably would have pre-ordered it even if the title was "Bugger Bognor Regis."

Sheriff of Nottingham

Typical Bryson

Reviewed in the United States on April 6, 2017

"The Road to Little Dribbling" is Bill Bryson's sequel to "Notes from a Small Island". Bill travels from one end of the UK to the other and visits many of the seaports and small villages he missed during his previous excursion. Bryson writes in his typical breezy, entertaining, witty, and humorous style. The author had me laughing out loud constantly throughout his work and his words capture the great beauty and tranquility of the British countryside. I would have liked more coverage of Scotland, as it is only mentioned in the final few pages.

Although I concur with most of his assessments of the British people, culture, and landscape, I have to say that the man truly has his head up his "arse" on the immigration issue. Earth to Bill, most of the immigrants, legal and illegal, that have been pouring into the UK for the last twenty years, are not well educated, employable, White, anglophiles who revere, respect, and contribute to the betterment of British society. If anything, many of them to tend to be young men of military age who despise all Western culture and literally piss on the monuments Bryson writes so eloquently about. Anyone who has visited London, in the last ten years, know this. And perhaps Mr. Bill does too. He's just afraid to write honestly about it living in George Orwell's England. Nowadays, you never know when the thought police are going to come knocking on your door for telling the Truth.

Bryson's an exceptional writer, but like most liberals he's completely out of touch with reality on politics.

Beverly A. Sykes

Makes me want to return to England

Reviewed in the United States on June 10, 2016

Years ago, My husband and I were in Cambridge, England and I saw a display in a book store window. The book was Bryson's "Notes from a Small Island," a book he wrote driving around England, where he and his family had lived for many years, for one last look before returning to the US. Walt and I were driving around England and Bryson's book became our most delightful tour guide, as he visited many of the spots where we visited. Bryson is the master of the little known fact about things you never realized. In this new book, he is taking another tour of England to see how it compares with his first book. As in "Notes," this one is chock full of information you didn't realized you wanted to know and things about people you never heard of before. Like Thomas Pritchard, who designed the first iron bridge in the world, in Shropshire. Pritchard had never done anything in cast iron, because nobody had before, yet he never got to see it because he died before it was finished.

I also leaned about Building B30 at Sellafield, which is "the most hazardous building in Europe." It and the building next door are filled with slowly decaying fuel rods and contaminated hunks of metal and machinery.

But mostly, this book is filled with tales of marvelous vistas, beautiful, walks, quiet beaches, quirky locations, eccentric people, and quaint little towns you have probably never heard of but suddenly desperately want to visit. And who knew that more people are killed in England by cows than by bulls..?

This book celebrates the best...and the worst of Bryson's adopted country. It's a great read.

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