mrdavid205 's review for:

The Road to Little Dribbling: More Notes From a Small Island by Bill Bryson

5.0

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One of my all time favourite books is Notes from a Small Island, a book full of laugh out loud moments and a very clear insight in to British humour and character. The sequel is, perhaps, less engaging but still brilliant. Why is it less engaging? I think, in part, because Bryson has become older and more cynical as he freely admits. The complaints rumbling through the book about customer service and government incompetence and neglect make some parts of the book sound quite curmudgeonly. However, you cannot really disagree with anything he says. We are richer in financial terms - this was written before the upheavals of the last couple of years - but we have fewer amenities than we did when we were the sick man of Europe in the 1970s. We are neglecting huge parts of the country, overdeveloping others and becoming a far less happy and likeable place. In all of this he is utterly correct, but it means that the book frequently takes on a regretful tone that is at odds with the breezy good humour of the original. That said, Bryson is always brilliant to read and this book is no exception.