Bill Bryson

This article is about the writer. For his father, a sports journalist, see Bill Bryson, Sr. For the politician, see Bill Bryson (Australian politician). For the American judge, see William Curtis Bryson.

Bill Bryson
Born	(1951-12-08) December 8, 1951 Des Moines, Iowa, U.S.A.
Occupation	Author, University Chancellor
Genre	Travel, English language, Science
Website
http://www.randomhouse.com/features/billbryson/index.html

William McGuire "Bill" Bryson, OBE, (born December 8, 1951) is a best-selling American author of humorous books on travel, as well as books on the English language and on science. Born an American, he was a resident of North Yorkshire for most of his professional life before moving back to the US in 1995. In 2003 Bryson moved back to Britain, living in the old rectory of Wramplingham, Norfolk, and was appointed Chancellor of Durham University.

Early life

Bill Bryson was born in Des Moines, Iowa, the son of William and Mary Bryson (In 2006 Bryson published The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, a humorous account of his childhood years in Des Moines). He has an older brother, Michael, and a sister, Mary Jane Elizabeth.

Bryson attended Drake University for two years before dropping out in 1972, deciding to instead backpack around Europe for four months. He returned to Europe the following year with a high school friend, the pseudonymous Stephen Katz. Some of his experiences from this trip are relived as flashbacks in Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe, which documents a similar journey Bryson made twenty years later.

Move to United Kingdom

Bryson first visited Britain in 1973 during a tour of Europe, and decided to stay after landing a job working in a psychiatric hospital – the now defunct Holloway Sanatorium in Virginia Water, Surrey. He met a nurse there named Cynthia, whom he married, and they moved to the USA in 1975 so Bryson could complete his college degree. In 1977, they settled in Britain, where they remained until 1995. Living in North Yorkshire and mainly working as a journalist, Bryson eventually became chief copy editor of the business section of The Times, and then deputy national news editor of the business section of The Independent. He left journalism in 1987, three years after the birth of his third child. Still living in Kirkby Malham, North Yorkshire, Bryson started writing independently and in 1990 their fourth and final child, Sam, was born.

Although able to apply for British citizenship, Bryson has declined a citizenship test, declaring himself "too cowardly" to take it.

Writings

In 1995, Bryson returned to the United States to live in Hanover, New Hampshire, for some years, the stories of which feature in his book I'm A Stranger Here Myself, alternatively titled Notes from a Big Country in Britain, Canada and Australia. During his time in the United States, Bryson decided to walk the Appalachian Trail with his friend Stephen Katz (a pseudonym), about which he wrote the book A Walk in the Woods. In 2003 the Brysons and their four children returned to Britain, and now live in Norfolk.

Also in 2003, in conjunction with World Book Day, voters in the United Kingdom chose Bryson's book Notes from a Small Island as that which best sums up British identity and the state of the nation. In the same year, he was appointed a Commissioner for English Heritage.

In 2004, Bryson won the prestigious Aventis Prize for best general science book with A Short History of Nearly Everything. This 500-page popular literature piece explores not only the histories and current statuses of the sciences, but also reveals their humble and often humorous beginnings. Although one "top scientist" is alleged to have jokingly described the book as "annoyingly free of mistakes", Bryson himself makes no such claim, and a list of nine reported errors in the book is available online, identifying the chapter in which each appears but with no page or line references. In 2005, the book won the EU Descartes Prize for science communication.

Bryson in the regalia of Chancellor of Durham University, with Durham Cathedral in the background

Bryson has also written two popular works on the history of the English language — Mother Tongue and Made in America — and, more recently, an update of his guide to usage, Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words (published in its first edition as The Penguin Dictionary of Troublesome Words in 1983). These books were popularly acclaimed and well-reviewed, though they received some criticism claiming that they contained factual errors, urban myths and folk etymologies.

Honours

In 2005, Bryson was appointed Chancellor of Durham University, succeeding the late Sir Peter Ustinov, and has been particularly active with student activities, even appearing in a Durham student film (the sequel to The Assassinator) and promoting litter picks in the city. He had praised Durham as "a perfect little city" in Notes from a Small Island. He has also been awarded honorary degrees by numerous universities, including Bournemouth University and in April 2002 the Open University.

In 2005, Bryson received the President's Award from the Royal Society of Chemistry for advancing the cause of the chemical sciences. In the same year, Bryson and the RSC jointly created the Bill Bryson prize, an annual award to encourage science writing in schools.

In 2006, Frank Cownie, the mayor of Des Moines, awarded Bryson the key to the city and announced that 21 October 2006 would be known as "Bill Bryson, The Thunderbolt Kid, Day."

In November 2006, Bryson interviewed the then British Prime Minister Tony Blair on the state of science and education.

On 13 December 2006, Bryson was awarded an honorary OBE for his contribution to literature. The following year, he was awarded the James Joyce Award of the Literary and Historical Society of University College Dublin.

In January 2007, Bryson was the Schwartz Visiting Fellow of the Pomfret School in Connecticut.

In May 2007, he became the President of the Campaign to Protect Rural England. His first area of focus in this role was the establishment of an anti-littering campaign across England. He discussed the future of the countryside with Richard Mabey, Sue Clifford, Nicholas Crane and Richard Girling at CPRE's Volunteer Conference in November 2007.

In October 2010, it was announced that Bryson would be stepping down from the role of Chancellor at Durham University at the end of 2011.

Books by Bill Bryson

Travel

• The Palace Under the Alps and Over 200 Other Unusual, Unspoiled, and Infrequently Visited Spots in 16 European Countries (1985)
• The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America (1989)
• Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe (1991)
• Notes from a Small Island (1995). (Adapted for television by Carlton Television in 1998)
• A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail (1998) (Featuring Stephen Katz)
• Notes from a Big Country (UK) / I'm a Stranger Here Myself (US) (1999)
• Down Under (UK) / In a Sunburned Country (US) (2000)
• Bill Bryson's African Diary (2002) (travels in Africa for CARE International)
• Walk About (2002) (Combined in one volume are Down Under and A Walk in the Woods)

Language

• The Penguin Dictionary of Troublesome Words (1984)
• The Mother Tongue: English and How it Got That Way (1990) (Adapted for Journeys in English (2004) BBC Radio 4)
• Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States (1998)
• Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words (2002)
• Bryson's Dictionary for Writers and Editors (2008)

Science

• A Short History of Nearly Everything (2003)
• A Really Short History of Nearly Everything (2008) (Children's version of 2003 book)
• On the Shoulders of Giants (editor – 2009)
• Seeing Further: The Story of Science, Discovery, and the Genius of the Royal Society (editor – 2010)

Biography

• Shakespeare: The World as Stage (2007)

History

• At Home: A Short History of Private Life (2010) Doubleday. ISBN 9780385608275

Memoir

• The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid (2006)

External links

• Official UK Bill Bryson website
• Open Library. Works by Bryson
• Durham University Profile
• Bill Bryson: The Secret Life of Your Home, The Guardian, 15 May 2010
• Bryson at Random House
• Template:Worldcat id
• Bill Bryson at IMDb
• Bill Bryson - A short history of nearly everything presentation at the Royal Society
• A brief excerpt from The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid(archived from the original on 2007-10-05)
• The Life & Times of the Thunderbolt Kid Reviews at Metacritic (archived from the original on 2008-04-30)
• BBC Wear - Bill Bryson loves Durham
• Interview with Bill Bryson about organ donation
• BBC Radio Five Live interview with Bill Bryson about the British countryside
• CPRE interview on the proposed South Downs National Park (archived from the original on
• Interview with Bill Bryson about his career in travel writing.
• At Home: A History of Private Life by Bill Bryson: A review, James Walton, The Telegraph, 19 June 2010
• Bill Bryson interviewed by Sophie Elmhirst on New Statesman, 14 October 2010.