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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
No - I'm a Stranger Here Myself is a US edition of "Notes from a Big Country". Courseiam 14:38, 17 August 2008 (UTC)Reply
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)
i dont understand i am doing a school project,and it takes hours to find info can you put a more detailed profile at the top of the page
I've restored the link to WP's list of reported errors in A Short History of Nearly Everything, without saying "Wikipedia" in the text. (BillC had removed the link because of Wikipedia:ASR, which says to avoid naming Wikipedia in references, but that should not preclude the link itself.) Some of the errors in the book can be detected by applying basic math, while others require more advanced scientific knowledge. The book has potential but should have a revised edition, or at least a companion website for corrections. Meanwhile, WP's list of errors seems the best available, and is necessary to any balanced presentation of the book (as opposed to merely listing praise and prizes).TVC 15 (talk) 21:29, 9 January 2008 (UTC)Reply
According to the introduction in Notes From a Small Island, published by Black Swan in the UK, ISBN 0-552-97600-9 Parameter error in {{ISBN}}: checksum, 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
can somone get the links working for african diary and things like that?--fwed66 16:34, 5 June 2006 (GMT)
Ref 20 link no longer active:
"Author Bill Bryson Takes Agent to Court". Courthouse News Service. Pasadena, California. December 4, 2012. Retrieved March 27, 2016. TetsuoTheRob (talk) 00:19, 9 August 2019 (UTC)Reply
Noticed that link to billbryson.co.uk in top righ info panel goes to a dead link. Suggest this is changed to go to: https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/176878/bill-bryson?tab=penguin-biography ... BUT I cannot redirect billbryson.co.uk Any suggestion - can someone just do it - perhaps Bill? :-) (Editing newbie here) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dbcallaghan (talk • contribs) 08:41, 8 June 2023 (UTC)Reply
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)Reply
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.
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
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?
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)Reply
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)Reply
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)Reply
Well, yes. If you read the book you can see he lived in Surrey, Bournemouth and London.
Does no-one else feel uncomfortable with providing Katz' real name? Bryson is pretty scathing about him in "Neither here nor there". I suggest dropping this. It serves no purpose. I haven't looked at "Thunderbolt kid" for more info. Will do soon. 129.67.140.39 17:04, 24 May 2007 (UTC)Reply
Agreed, and there must be doubts about the reliability of the source - when i link it doesn't seem to do anything but go to the ITV homepage. This should come off until its relevance is demonstrated and it is properly sourced (82.12.211.8 21:13, 28 August 2007 (UTC))Reply
I don't see how he can have lived full time in Yorkshire when he was a staff journalist on London papers. Dominictimms 00:12, 14 June 2007 (UTC)Reply
Latest book (Thunderbolt Kid) gives his web site as billbrysonofficial.co.uk which seems to end up at http://www.booksattransworld.co.uk/billbryson The official web site given in Wiki is the old one from another publisher. Bill bryson used to live in London during the working week and travel back to north yorkshire on the weekends. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.204.153.20 (talk) 10:24, 17 July 2008 (UTC)Reply
I reverted the Bournemouth Echo edit because the anonymous person's edit two minutes later was this. - Dudesleeper Talk 16:24, 31 January 2008 (UTC)Reply
I found an exclusive interview with Bill where he talks about how to become a travel writer, his past career and work. I thought it may be worthy as an external link. I know the interviewer and thought I would leave this to a neutral editor to decide whether to add it or not. It's a great interview nonetheless.
More than once, but particularly in Lost continent, Bill has spoken of the quality of his father's baseball writings. I know nothing about baseball or it's written history, but I am surprised not to find reference to these commentaries elsewhere in Wikipedia. Is there some archive of great sports writing somewhere? The american versions of Neville Cardus ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Brunnian (talk • contribs) 19:48, 14 March 2008 (UTC)Reply
In the 'Thunderbolt Kid', Bryson speaks of his father writing about the 1960 World Series. He then quotes the first few paragraphs of his father's article based around Bill Mazeroski's winning home-run. It's a fantastic article and does show how talented Bryson Sr was. I found a link here that has a section - http://37signals.com/svn/posts/606-on-writing-zappos-chocolove-and-bill-bryson —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.98.222.58 (talk) 01:32, 14 May 2010 (UTC)Reply
I put in that he is of maternal Irish descent and added him to the Americans of Irish descent category for a second time. I hope that someone doesn't delete it again. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.139.66.8 (talk) 14:12, 18 September 2008 (UTC)Reply
He states so in his memoir, Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.128.47.36 (talk) 13:05, 19 September 2008 (UTC)Reply
Look, why does my category addition get removed within minutes whereas his placing is the English agnostics category goes unchallenged? Where is the evidence for that? The selectiveness of the removal of mention of his Irish heritage seems akin to racism to me. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.129.5.137 (talk) 00:05, 26 September 2008 (UTC)Reply
Bryson is of Irish and Swedish decent. He states in 'Thunderbolt Kid' that his mother's side is Irish and that his grandfather on his father's side was Swedish (Pitt Foss Bryson). If you can't find a reference then I'm sure my statement here will suffice. Submitted by S. Bryson —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.98.222.58 (talk) 00:57, 14 May 2010 (UTC)Reply
His real name is listed on this ITN page about the South Bank Show on which "Katz" was interviewed. I'll leave it to others to decide whether or not it should be included in the article, though I'd lean slightly against on the grounds that "Katz" is not really a public figure in himself. 86.132.138.159 (talk) 20:06, 15 January 2009 (UTC)Reply
Bryson left out the true name of Katz to stop people from pestering him. I think it would be in everyone's best interest to leave this information out. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.6.158.161 (talk) 13:53, 14 May 2009 (UTC)Reply
I see no reason to feel uncomfortable about providing Katz' real name. It is no longer a secret, and has not been a secret for roughly four years now. Matt Angerer himself appears to have no problem with his newfound celebrity due to being identified as Katz, because he appeared prominently on camera with Bryson in 2005, driving around Des Moines, laughing, joking and reminiscing about their past history during the edition of the ITV arts documentary series The South Bank Show that dealt with Bryson's life. If you want to keep someone's identity a secret, you do not invite them to appear under their real name in a TV documentary which will be shown around the world and which will explain who they are.
In respect of Angerer's portrayal in "Neither Here Nor There", which is often cited as a reason not to reveal his real name, that book was published 17 years ago, and it is reasonable to assume that any bad feeling that might have existed between Angerer and Bryson has long since evaporated. 213.132.48.105 (talk) 13:10, 29 August 2009 (UTC)Reply
Here's link to a 2015 interview with 'Katz'. Cassandra http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/entertainment/movies/2015/09/02/real-life-bill-brysons-stephen-katz/32423079/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.41.228.210 (talk) 12:40, 15 September 2015 (UTC)Reply
Well nobody seems to know that he is British Citizen or not-- and if he started in 1995 he should be one by now. That being said he had "Lately moved" to New Hampshire in "late Summer of 1996" according to the intro of "I'm a Stranger Here Myself"(UK title "Notes from a Large Country)-- US ISBN 0-7679-0381-1- so that may have reset the process.
If so, the intro should NOT have OBE after his name. Honorary titles cannot be used in names. And anyway titles, I believe, cannot be used *as such* in the United States-- though people can call themselves what they want so there is nothing stopping him calling himself Bill Bryson OBE if he wants. (In the UK it is illegal to affect a title one does not have.)
So I think we should scrub the "OBE" in the intro. And also that he is British, if he is not.
SimonTrew (talk) 01:55, 5 March 2009 (UTC)Reply
Bryson received an honorary OBE as he does not have citizenship in a commonwealth nation. However, honorary recipients may still use their post-nomial letters thus giving him the title Bill Bryson, OBE. Honorary Knights of the British Empire may not use the title 'Sir' before their names but may use 'KBE' as post-nomial letters e.g. William Henry Gates III, KBE (Bill Gates). Bryson is allowed to have/use the letters OBE after his name. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 77.98.222.58 (talk) 01:51, 14 May 2010 (UTC)Reply
I notice the link I instated to the fact Bryson is a judge of this annual competition for travel guides has been removed. I'd suggest it's actually of interest to people interested in his work and demonstrates another facet of his personality. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Wanderlust magazine (talk • contribs) 15:43, 16 June 2009 (UTC)Reply
I recalled reading a National Geographic article written by Bryson, about hedgerows (forget the issue and date). Did he write other articles and is this worth mentioning in the entry? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.41.111.124 (talk) 22:13, 24 July 2009 (UTC)Reply
I'm a bit puzzled as to why the articles "You gotta have friends. Which is damned unfortunate" and "Hiker's highway' made it into his publications list which is otherwise only books - the first is pretty much taken from 'Walk in the Woods', isn't it? Was the second article of particular note? If articles of prominence are being listed, perhaps his work on 'The Times' newspapers' science magazine 'Eureka' should be mentioned? In particular, his 'Notes on a Super Hadron Collider' was excellent: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/eureka/article6899505.ece freaky dragonlady 00:07, 06 Sept 2010
Wasn't "notes From A Small Island" televised, also presented by Bryson, six episodes on ITV about ten years ago?--TimothyJacobson (talk) 14:35, 26 July 2010 (UTC)Reply
This book seems to be missing from the books section: ISBN-13: 978-0061999772 ISBN-10: 0061999776 Title: Seeing Further: The Story of Science, Discovery, and the Genius of the Royal Society — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.27.198.48 (talk) 19:00, 2 March 2015 (UTC)Reply
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I don’t believe this should be listed under Bryson’s works. He didn’t write the book, just the introduction. I will remove unless there are any objections. A bright cold day in april (talk) 09:03, 19 December 2020 (UTC)Reply
Ramanujan was Indian, and while the government was British, it is not certain Indians were considered full British subjects. Hopefully this can be cleared up. 2601:1C0:6C03:3760:3453:35F5:6E54:1E05 (talk) 15:47, 22 November 2021 (UTC)Reply