The Road to Little Dribbling

Adventures of an American in Britain

By: Bill Bryson

Narrated by: Nathan Osgood

A loving and hilarious—if occasionally spiky—valentine to Bill Bryson’s adopted country, Great Britain. Prepare for total joy and multiple episodes of unseemly laughter.

Twenty years ago, Bill Bryson went on a trip around Britain to discover and celebrate that green and pleasant land. The result was Notes from a Small Island, a true classic and one of the bestselling travel books ever written. Now he has traveled about Britain again, by bus and train and rental car and on foot, to see what has changed—and what hasn’t.

Following (but not too closely) a route he dubs the Bryson Line, from Bognor Regis in the south to Cape Wrath in the north, by way of places few travelers ever get to at all, Bryson rediscovers the wondrously beautiful, magnificently eccentric, endearingly singular country that he both celebrates and, when called for, twits. With his matchless instinct for the funniest and quirkiest and his unerring eye for the idiotic, the bewildering, the appealing, and the ridiculous, he offers acute and perceptive insights into all that is best and worst about Britain today.

Nothing is more entertaining than Bill Bryson on the road—and on a tear. The Road to Little Dribbling reaffirms his stature as a master of the travel narrative—and a really, really funny guy.

©2016 Bill Bryson (P)2016 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Although he's now entering what he fondly calls his 'dotage,' the 64-year-old Bryson seems merely to have sharpened both his charms and his crotchets. As the title of The Road to Little Dribbling suggests, he remains devoted to Britain's eccentric place names as well as its eccentric pastimes." —Alida Becker, The New York Times Book Review

"[Y]ou could hardly ask for a better guide to Great Britain than Bill Bryson. Bryson’s new book is in most ways a worthy successor and sequel to his classic Notes From A Small Island. Like its predecessor, The Road to Little Dribbling is a travel memoir, combining adventures and observations from his travels around the island nation with recounting of his life there, off and mostly on, over the last four decades. Bryson is such a good writer that even if you don’t especially go in for travel books, he makes reading this book worthwhile."—Nancy Klingener, Miami Herald

"...Bryson’s capacity for wonder at the beauty of his adopted homeland seems to have only grown with time.... Britain is still his home four decades later, a period in which he went from lowly scribe at small-town British papers to best-selling travel writer. But he retains an outsider’s appreciation for a country that first struck him as 'wholly strange ... and yet somehow marvelous.”—Griff Witte, Washington Post

Can't even make it through due to horrible reading

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

Whose idea was it to have Nathan Osgood narrate this book? Horrible reading. All humor lost in the narration. I have read every book Bill has written, and was anxiously awaiting this release. Point blank this reading does him a horrible disservice.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Nathan Osgood?

Bill is by far the best at reading his own books. PLEASE have him read it.

Disappointed

I miss Bill's narration. This reader did not do the book justice. Find someone else!

Could be a little tedious at times.

I love Bill Bryson . This though could be a bit tedious at times..more funny stories would have made it more enjoyable.

Still my favorite!

Bryson is masterful at not only describing places and people, but his use of language as it relates to his conclusions is a joy to read. He will always be my favorite, both for actual reading and for the audio versions.

Osgood get sa big thumbs-up as well!

WishBryson had narrated it himself

But overall a delightful, and occasionally laugh-out-loud read. Made me want to visit the same places. A nice follow-up to Small Island and Home.

This is great fun if you're fond of the UK

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I'd recommend this book, sure. It's a sweet and poignant love letter to the UK written by someone who knows it well and appreciates it. It's very timely reading after the recent Brexit vote, and I only wish it had been published afterward so that we could hear Bryson's thoughts on that bit of idiocy.

It's quite a hilarious book, too.

What other book might you compare The Road to Little Dribbling to and why?

It's an enjoyable followup to Notes From a Small Island.

What about Nathan Osgood’s performance did you like?

I listened to this back-to-back with Notes From a Small Island, and Nathan Osgood's narration was initially jarring after Bill Bryson's narration of the former book. But after I while I got used to it, and aside from a few mispronunciations, I began to enjoy it very much. His tone was delightful and suited the subject matter.

Any additional comments?

It's obvious that Bill Bryson is a different person than he was 20 years ago when he wrote Notes From a Small Island, which is only natural. I enjoyed the differences, for the most part. I appreciated his grumpy old man schtick, but could have lived without the frequent fat shaming, occasional notes of misogyny, and one unexpected and unwelcome burst of transphobia regarding Caitlin Jenner.

Brilliant!

This travel book is full of with humor and anecdotes. It makes you laugh and think simultaneously.

Classic Bryson

An uncanny combination of history, geography, social commentary, and absolute hilarious delivery. This man is a national treasure. For two countries.

Thank heaven it’s NOT read by Bryson himself

Unlike most of the commenters here, I’m glad this book is narrated by someone other than Bryson. Normally I’d prefer to hear an author read his own work, but — I know this is a minority view — Bryson is one of the worst readers I’ve ever heard. His rendition of his book “At Home” was so bad that I had to stop listening. As a Midwesterner transplanted to England, his accent is a shifting mixture of the two; he starts off sounding like a corn-fed American, then throws in a tortured, phony-sounding British pronunciation of one or two words (especially ones with a long O — “home,” “show,” etc.), like a kid in a high school play pretending to be a rather snooty Brit. The effect is creepy and, to my mind, quite chilling.

That aside, he is a wonderfully entertaining writer, and I’ve enjoyed a number of his books. However, for the first time, I've begun to suspect that he’s not a particularly nice guy.

In fact, “Little Dribbling” is surprisingly sour. Make that VERY sour. This region-by-region travelogue veers between heartfelt praise for the beauties of the British landscape, pats on the head for various quaint shops, pubs, and restaurants that have pleased Bryson, and rather mean-spirited accounts of his interactions with assorted cashiers, ticket sellers, bartenders, shop assistants, waiters, and service people in general who’ve annoyed him. True, they do tend to come across as stupid, rude, and obtuse, and maybe they deserve his snarky, rather grumpy comments; but after the dozenth time, this routine of his — “I may be an old curmudgeon, but I’m surrounded by idiots, and the service in this country has gone downhill” — grows wearisome, and he sounds like a Yelp member who enjoys handing out bad reviews. (As an expatriate, he also never misses a chance to ridicule ignorant Americans.)

Curiously, Nathan Osgood’s performance makes Bryson sound all the snarkier. Osgood speaks as an American, but when giving voice to the humble service personnel the author has encountered in his travels, he gives them exaggeratedly dumb, low-class British accents. Maybe that’s exactly how Bryson would want it, I don’t know. Osgood certainly emphasizes, in his delivery, Bryson's aggrieved, scornful, short-tempered side.

Beyond this, it’s also a rather depressing book, leaving the impression that the Britain I’ve loved and revered has pretty much vanished forever. Aside from good hiking trails, scenic rural vistas, and some quaint old business establishments, it sounds as if the best things in Britain have closed up, gone under, been replaced, or become shabby, litter-strewn, overcrowded, or ridiculously overpriced. (P.S. A friend recently informed me that virtually all the second-hand book shops on Charing Cross Road are gone.)

I did listen to the whole audiobook and, as with other Bryson books, found a few chuckles and some interesting historical facts. But overall “Little Dribbling" was — perhaps as intended — something of a downer.

Bryson has gotten a bit too cranky.

I've read almost everything Bryson's written. This one was disappointing. In this book, Bryson complains a lot about a lot of things, many of which shouldn't bother him to the extent they appear to. He also seems a bit out of touch, for example when he asserts that running marathons to raise money for charity is common in England but wholly foreign to Americans. The audio book would have probably been helped if Bryson had read it himself. The man chosen to read in his place is too severe.