Is there anything better than visiting a place you love with an old friend who shares your enthusiasm? That's the feeling I got while I was reading Bill Bryson's rambles around England entitled The Road to Little Dribbling (#548).
In this book of essays Mr. Bryson is asked by his publisher to revisit the England of his youth. Well, that doesn't exactly happen, but his musings on his adopted country as an older and slightly crankier man touched a chord in me. I found myself thinking "That's just how I would have reacted!"
He does have a vague plan in mind for his series of journeys around Great Britain: to go from the furthest spot south (excluding the Channel Islands) to the very northernmost point of the mainland of Britain with many a detour, all of them entertaining. I've added several more places to my "Must Visit" list when next I go myself. .
I particularly enjoyed his chapter about a "Guys Outing" to a soccer match in company with his son-in-law and his two grandsons. My husband and I have started watching English Premier League play on television, so we could appreciate some of the points Bryson was making. It capped off reading this book nicely when the team playing that Saturday was Everton, the team he and his family had gone to see.
If you're a Bill Bryson fan, you will relish this book. If not, this might not be the best place for you to meet him for the first time. Try one of his earlier classics, like A Walk In The Woods.
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