Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson was born in 1951 in Iowa, USA. In 1977, he moved to England and lived for many years in Yorkshire, working in the business news sections of "The Times" and "Independent" newspapers until 1987, when he left journalism for writing. In 1995, he returned to his homeland, Iowa. He wrote travel books known for their humor and originality. His interest does not lie in exotic or picturesque locations. His observant, satirical, yet tender perspective focuses on people, their attitudes and behaviors, their obsessions and prejudices, and their ambivalent relationship between tradition and modernization with their local history and architecture. This personal (with autobiographical elements), cheerful, and familiar writing is considered by many critics to have inaugurated a new "anti-travel" literature. All of Bryson's books ("The Lost Continent," "Mother Tongue," "Neither Here nor There," "Made in America," "A Walk in the Woods," "Notes From a Big Country," "Down Under") have been well-loved by the public, and "Notes From A Small Island" (1995), remained a bestseller for many years, surpassing 1 million copies and earning him the title of British UK Author of the Year 1997. Bryson came back into the spotlight in 2003 with his clever book "A Short History of Nearly Everything," a popularized volume on the major achievements of science in various fields. The UK, whose citizenship he declined, showed its gratitude. In 2005, he was appointed honorary Chancellor of Durham University, succeeding Sir Peter Ustinov. The following year, 2006, he was awarded the title of Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his services to literature.