Bill Bryson – Down Under (2000)
Travel – 400 pages – my copy (paperback; 2001) bought for £3 from the Book Cupboard in Plymouth
- 4 nods
Travel – 400 pages – my copy (paperback; 2001) bought for £3 from the Book Cupboard in Plymouth
- 4 nods
Bill Bryson made his name as an author of travel fiction; an odd thing for a man who initally wrote books and articles on the English language, admitting his reluctance and pains as a traveller. From the lost continent of America, to zigzagging across Europe to our own small island, right up to the end of the twentieth century Bryson made his readers laugh and then cry….with more laughter.
Down Under is his take on the land of Australia; his impressions formed from several visits to the country in a short space of time. He travels across the railway from Sydney to Perth, he visits the major cities in the south-eastern corner, he sees the coral reef, Alice Springs and the large rock named Uluru. Throughout all, the reader has a convivial, funny and insightful host. As always, Bryson is a fan of the forgotten fact, of the quirks and eccentrics in history; of which, Australia has many. Such as adventurers liked Robert O'Hara Burke who tried to find a route across the desert contintent (and failed); as well one of his 'minor heroes', a geologist named Reginald Sprigg who found rocks that linked us to our pre-historic past. He continually comments on the vast amount of ways in which a person could be killed (spiders, large bugs, sharks, tidal waves), whilst being blown away by the richness of the fauna as well as disheartened by the plight of the Aborigine.
Down Under is not a full blooded travel book, as in the vein of Paul Theroux. Bryson doesn't hike with his back pack, away for months on end: travel is strictly upon his own terms, both enjoyable and hilarious. And to be more exact, it is not 100% "travel", with Bryson writing about history, about society and about his own views (the bibliography confirms his vast background reading). His observations are a delight to read (such as those on the sport of cricket, p.145); including his view on being alone in a cafe in Australia:
‘It always amazes me how seldom visitors bother with local papers. Personally, I can think of nothing more exciting – certainly nothing you could do in a public place with a cup of coffee – than to read newspapers from a part of the world you know almost nothing about. What a comfort it is to find a nation preoccupied by matters of no possible consequence to oneself. I love reading about scandals involving ministers of whom I have never heard, murder hunts in communities whose names sound dusty and remote, features on revered artists and thinkers whose achievements have never reached my ears…’ (p.99)
Always convivial, always a laugh: this is Bryson near his damned best. Don't miss it.
‘It always amazes me how seldom visitors bother with local papers. Personally, I can think of nothing more exciting – certainly nothing you could do in a public place with a cup of coffee – than to read newspapers from a part of the world you know almost nothing about. What a comfort it is to find a nation preoccupied by matters of no possible consequence to oneself. I love reading about scandals involving ministers of whom I have never heard, murder hunts in communities whose names sound dusty and remote, features on revered artists and thinkers whose achievements have never reached my ears…’ (p.99)
Always convivial, always a laugh: this is Bryson near his damned best. Don't miss it.
