Editions

Down Under

Down Under

It is the driest, flattest, hottest, most desiccated, infertile and climatically aggressive of all the inhabited continents and still Australia teems with life – a large portion of it quite deadly. In fact, Australia has more things that can kill you in a very nasty way than anywhere else.

Ignoring such dangers – and yet curiously obsessed by them – Bill Bryson journeyed to Australia and promptly fell in love with the country. And who can blame him? The people are cheerful, extrovert, quick-witted and unfailingly obliging: their cities are safe and clean and nearly always built on water; the food is excellent; the beer is cold and the sun nearly always shines. Life doesn’t get much better than this…

Reviews

  • Bryson makes you laugh out loud...Down Under is filled with quirky stories',

    Sunday Express

  • The thing that Bryson most loves about Australia - its "effortlessly dry, direct way of viewing the world" - is, in fact, his own. They're a perfect fit

    The New York Times Book Review

  • Bryson is the perfect travelling companion... when it comes to travel's peculiars the man still has no peers

    The Times

  • Bill Bryson is a very talented writer and an enormously funny and perceptive one. He is an artist who needs a big canvas. Australia has provided this. He's painted a masterpiece in travel literature

    Globe & Mail Toronto

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About the Author

Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson was born in Des Moines, Iowa, and grew up there, but has spent most of his adult life in Britain. He has worked for a number of newspapers, including The Times and the Independent. His books on the English language include Mother Tongue and Troublesome Words, both published by Penguin. Bill Bryson is the author of several bestsellers including The Lost Continent, Neither Here Nor There, Notes from a Small Island, A Walk in the Woods, Notes from a Big Country, Down Under, A Short History of Nearly Everything, One Summer: America 1927 and his memoir, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid. His most recent bestseller is The Road to Little Dribbling.

Bill Bryson

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Blogs

Graphic artist Neil Gower on his book covers for Bill Bryson

Graphic artist Neil Gower has designed the entire backlist of author Bill Bryson's books. How did he find a visual style to cover so many different titles?
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Events

The Body: Bill Bryson, 15th February 2020
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Features

Bill Bryson: we shouldn't take calorie counting too seriously

The author of The Body explores the strange history of how a 19th century 'calorimeter' chamber came to inform nutritional science (but hasn't always worked).

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