‘Vastly informative and vastly entertaining…A scholarly and fascinating book. October 8 sees the publication of A Really Short History of Nearly Everything. His next book, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, is a memoir of growing up in 1950s America, featuring another appearance from his old friend Stephen Katz. It was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize, before going on to win the Aventis Prize for Science Books and the Descartes Science Communication Prize. In his last book, he turned his attention to science. A Short History of Nearly Everything was lauded with critical acclaim, and became a huge bestseller. Other travel books include the massive bestseller Notes From a Small Island, which won the 2003 World Book Day National Poll to find the book which best represented modern England, followed by A Walk in the Woods (in which Stephen Katz, his travel companion from Neither Here Nor There, made a welcome reappearance), Notes From a Big Country and Down Under.īill Bryson has also written several highly praised books on the English language, including Mother Tongue and Made in America.

It was followed by Neither Here Nor There, an account of his first trip around Europe.

In The Lost Continent, Bill Bryson’s hilarious first travel book, he chronicled a trip in his mother’s Chevy around small town America. He and his family then moved to New Hampshire in America for a few years, but they have now returned to live in the UK.

He lived for many years with his English wife and four children in North Yorkshire. He settled in England in 1977, and worked in journalism until he became a full time writer. You suck.William McGuire “Bill” Bryson, OBE, FRS was born in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1951. Sorry Bill, I think the only one confused here is yourself. He makes fun of all the grammar rules, saying how they don't apply to the English language, but then goes on saying how English is sooooo complex and confusing and impossible to make sense of. Of course he doesn't explain why grammarians say they are a noun and a verb, cause he's got no idea. Quotation: 'A noun is a noun and a verb is a verb because grammarians say they are' wow. A fresh new look for Bill Brysons two exceptional classics on the English language More than 300 million people in the world speak English and the rest. He doesn't understand the difference between verbs and nouns, and the role they play in sentences. Bill Bryson has absolutely no knowledge about grammar and acts with an authoritative voice,disregarding very basic concepts,like what present tense is, what it is used for, the difference between present tense and bare infinitive, or between present tense and future tense for the same matter. But i just got to the chapter about grammar and I just want to throw the book out of the window. I liked the part about how the English language got this way, spelling, etymology, history, dialects.

Bill bryson english the mother tongue