Talk:Bill Bryson

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Contents 1 US/UK Editions 2 Mother Tongue 2.1 Factual errors 3 Return to England 4 dead links 5 Draft Dodging 6 Picture 7 British? 8 London

[edit] US/UK Editions

I'm not sure, but I believe I'm a Stranger Here Myself and Notes From a Big Country are corresponding US/UK editions. I also found reference to a book by Bryson called Bizarre World but could find no further detail. Cheers.

No - I'm a Stranger Here Myself is a US edition of "The Lost Continent".

I've briefly researched "Bizarre World," and it seems the book was written not by the Bill Bryson of "Mother Tongue" fame, but by another author altogether. As such, I've removed the reference. Martschink

[edit] Mother Tongue

Bryson's book Mother Tongue has been heavily criticised due to factual errors on nearly every page, tonnes of urban myths (such as the Eskimo vocabulary myth, and the "If English is good enough for Jesus..." line), and misunderstandings of IE language development. Check out the reviews page at Amazon for examples. As a result, I have removed the adjective "learned" for Bryson's language books, as Bryson is not a professional linguist and "Mother Tongue" is essentially distilled from older popular works on language by writers such as Mario Pei, who were themselves deplored by linguists. If there's interest, I can create a section on errors in Bryson's works.

I hope I don't sound like a Bryson-basher. I love his travelogues and enjoy his writing style, but his language books have a lot of problems and that has to be faced. Kricxjo 22:54 5 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Nevertheless, I've moved mention of criticism out of the first paragraph, where it seemed out of context (the first paragraph merely mentions what sort of books he writes; no claims are made here about either popularity or authority). To balance it, I've slightly strengthened the mention of criticism later on (which previously seemed somewhat dismissive of the criticisms). TSP 10:30, 7 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Factual errors

TSP, you are too kind to Bryson. He is a gifted writer, but more prominence should be given to the unreliability of his writing. Bryson often appears more concerned with entertaining than informing, and his books contain many inaccuracies. I believe he has said quite frankly that the stories of his travels are not exactly what happened, but are a more humorous version of what happened. Does someone know where he said that? (It might have been an interview.)

The most recent error that I noticed is his description in The Lost Continent of Melungeons as having blonde hair and dark, negro-like skin. Sounds fascinating, but it's not true. In a Sunburned Country gives an impartial and misleading story about the arm that was regurgitated by a shark - he fails to mention that the arm belonged to a murder victim and the shark didn't kill the person. The true story is more interesting: the regurgitated arm was evidence that the missing person had been murdered (The Shark Arm Case). But Bryson appeared more interested in building up his exaggerated description of how dangerous Australia is.

I was very impressed with Mother Tongue until I checked out a few facts and found them not only not to be true but in fact to have no basis in reality at all. A shame as I enjoyed the book. --Sachabrunel 21:23, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

A Short History of Nearly Everything seems better, and appears to only contain minor errors such as confusing monotremes with marsupials.

A couple of observations on his writing - they probably don't fit in the article, but for the record, here they are. The main writing techniques in his travel books appear to be:

1. Talking about how dangerous a place is - The Appalachian Trail, or Australia, or, in A Short History of Nearly Everything, it's the Earth itself which sounds like a terrifying place to live.

2. Making jokes about a place based on a common stereotype, e.g. Australian animals are dangerous, Iowa is boring.

Singkong2005 05:25, 7 November 2005 (UTC)

Describing those as his "main writing techniques" is a ridiculous slur. Honbicot 11:11, 21 November 2005 (UTC)

Slur, yes, but I think it's accurate. I'd be curious to see a defence of his writing, but I'm also happy to let those points rest.

I am still interested to see if someone has documented his high rate of factual errors. --Singkong2005 09:02, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Return to England

According to the introduction in Notes From a Small Island, published by Black Swan in the UK, ISBN 0-552-97600-9, Bill Bryson has moved back from the States to the UK. But I can't find this information anywhere else on the internet so I'm hesitant to edit the main page. Does anyone know if this is true? Hwebers 3 Jan 2004

I know Bill's son, we are at university together, they have moved back to Lincolnshire. --Rje 02:16, Feb 9, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] dead links

can somone get the links working for african diary and things like that?--fwed66 16:34, 5 June 2006 (GMT)

We don't have articles for those red links. {{sofixit}}! --ⁿɡ͡b Nick Boalch\^talk 15:51, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Draft Dodging

A professor told me that Bryson dodged the Vietnam draft, which is why he moved to England in thje first place. Anyone know if that can be verified?--Bedford 23:16, 13 October 2005 (UTC)

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It's highly unlikely given the dates when he moved to the UK and the dates of the Vietnam draft. Possible, but unlikely.

In general I am surprised how many people seem to use an encyclopaedia to embed their own criticisms of people. Encyclopeadia articles should be factual, concise and without prejudice.

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If someone leaves the country to get out of being drafted to Vietnam, that is a simple fact not a criticism. I would probably do the same thing in similar circumstances. I'm surprised how many people seem to read simple facts as someone's private criticism.--Praguestepcihld

[edit] Picture

I think the image makes him a little too small - nice photo, but its more of a durham cathedral shot than that of bill. Could it be cropped perhaps?

[edit] British?

The article describes Bryson as "...a best-selling American-born British author..." I know he lives in Britain, but does he actually have UK citizenship? AdorableRuffian 23:25, 9 September 2006 (UTC)

He references beginning the long road to attaining UK citizenship in the external link to The Guardian. That was in November 1995. The person who made the change to his being a UK citizen in the article likely read a more recent article but didn't reference it. - Dudesleeper 09:48, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

That article was written in November 2005 (not 1995), and only states that he has started (or intends to start) the process of becoming a citizen. I can't find any more recent articles that confirm whether he has attained citizenship yet. AdorableRuffian 14:50, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

I remember reading a few months ago, in the Sunday Times I believe, in an article written by himself, that he has now obtained British citizenship. GoatBoy1985 11:46, 28 September 2006 (BST)

Alistair Cook, having given up British citizenship as an adult to become American is described as British-American, so for consistency's sake, I changed Bryson to the same. Praguestepcihld 15:25, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Er...in the case of Bryson it's the other way round isn't it? Bryson's an American who's become a British citizen. LDHan 16:33, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] London

Didn't he live in London at some point during his first stint in the UK? He mentions it in Small Island. And it can't be an easy commute from North Yorkshire to the offices of The Times. Lfh 22:34, 5 December 2006 (UTC)