Down Under
  • Published: 4 January 2016
  • ISBN: 9781784161835
  • Imprint: Black Swan
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 432
  • RRP: $24.99
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Down Under

Travels in a Sunburned Country

Formats & editions
Paperback
4 Jan 2016
EBook
1 May 2010
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Bill Bryson's travels in a sunburned country: Australia will never look the same again.

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…
  • Published: 4 January 2016
  • ISBN: 9781784161835
  • Imprint: Black Swan
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 432
  • RRP: $24.99
Categories:
Share…

About the author

Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson was born in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1951. His bestselling books include The Road to Little Dribbling, Notes from a Small Island, A Walk in the Woods, One Summer and The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid. In a national poll, Notes from a Small Island was voted the book that best represents Britain. His acclaimed work of popular science, A Short History of Nearly Everything, won the Aventis Prize and the Descartes Prize, and was the biggest selling non-fiction book of its decade in the UK. His new book The Body: A Guide for Occupants is an extraordinary exploration of the human body which will have you marvelling at the form you occupy.
Bill Bryson was Chancellor of Durham University 2005–2011. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society. He lives in England.

portrait photo of Bill Bryson

Also by Bill Bryson

A Really Short History of Words
The Body Illustrated
A Really Short History of Nearly Everything
A Short History of Nearly Everything
The Body
A Really Short Journey Through the Body
The Road to Little Dribbling
See all

Praise for Down Under

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

He arrives at his destination, finds a hotel, checks in, meanders around the neighbourhood, visits any museums or public monuments he happens to encounter, has a couple of drinks, eavesdrops on a conversation or two, then goes to bed. A year later, people on three continents are hospitalised as a result of ruptures caused by laughing so hard at his account of the experience

The Age, Melbourne

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

Sunday Express

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

Sunday Express
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