Notes from a Small Island (1995) is an endlessly quotable travelogue written by Bill Bryson. The novel follows the American author as he travels around Great Britain one last time before returning to the USA. It is jammed-packed with facts, figures, kooky characters and Bryson's own observations about British life and culture.
Notes from a Small Island: context
Bill Bryson is an American author from Des Moines, a small town in Iowa, USA. Bryson attended Drake University. However, in 1972, he dropped out of college to travel around Europe for a year. While on this trip in 1973, Bryson first arrived in the UK. He decided to stay in the country longer, getting a job in Holloway Sanitorium in Surrey. This choice would be pivotal in Bryson's life, as it is here that he met his wife, Cynthia Billen. The two married in 1975 before returning to America so Bryson could finish college.
Bryson and Billen returned to the UK in 1977. There, Bryson worked as an editor, before becoming a full-time author during the 1990s. The family decided to return to the USA in 1995. This decision directly led to Bryson writing Notes from a Small Island. Bryson used the book to say goodbye to the UK, as he travelled throughout the country, reminiscing on places of note in his life.
Notes from a Small Island: summary
Notes from a Small Island (1995), follows the author, Bill Bryson, as he travels across Great Britain. During this journey, Bryson tries to use public transport as much as possible. However, he has to use a car while in Oxfordshire, as well as on his way to John O'Groats (the top of mainland UK, found in Scotland). While on his trip, Bryson travels through many small towns and villages, on his quest to find the perfect village. One village that Bryson returns to is Virginia Water, where Holloway Sanitorium was located. Bryson reminisces on his first weeks in the UK here. He uses these towns and villages to discuss British cultures, such as their people, food and weather.
Frequently, throughout the account, Bryson provides facts about the history of the UK, naming statistics on the number of historical sites, and listing other archaeological facts. He will then contrast this history with the relative newness of America. At the centre of this novel, Bryson is detailing his experiences as an American in Britain, and lists all the ways the two countries' cultures clash. The novel finishes with an upbeat message from the author, found below,
The way I see it, there are three reasons never to be unhappy. First, you were born. This in itself is a remarkable achievement. Second, you are alive. For the tiniest moment in the span of eternity, you have the miraculous privilege to exist. and third, you have plenty to eat, you live in a time of peace, and 'Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree' will never be number one again.
Notes from a Small Island: quotes
Below are a number of important quotes from Notes from a Small Island.
Suddenly, in the space of a moment, I realized what it was that I loved about Britain - which is to say, all of it. Every last bit of it, good and bad - Marmite, village fetes, country lanes, people saying 'mustn't grumble' and 'I'm terribly sorry but', people apologizing to me when I conk them with a nameless elbow, milk in bottles, beans on toast, haymaking in June, stinging nettles, seaside piers, Ordnance Survey maps, crumpets, hot-water bottles as a necessity, drizzly Sundays - every bit of it.
ln this quote, Bryson is discussing why he loves Great Britain. He uses a list to talk about the different aspects of British culture that he enjoys. This list spans from food to parties to conversations to objects to the weather. This quote captures the sentimental tone seen throughout the novel, which reflects Bryson's love for the country he is leaving.
...it occurred to me, not for the first time, what a remarkably small world Britain is. That is its glory, you see--that it manages at once to be intimate and small scale, and at the same time packed to bursting with incident and interest. I am constantly filled with admiration at this--at the way you can wander through a town like Oxford and in the space of a few hundred yards pass the home of Christopher Wren,... or how you can stand on Snow's Hill at Windsor and see, in a single sweep, Windsor Castle, the playing fields of Eton, the churchyard where Gray wrote his "Elegy," the site where The Merry Wives of Windsor was performed. Can there anywhere on earth be, in such a modest span, a landscape more packed with centuries of busy, productive attainment?”
This quote highlights the differences that Bryson notices as an American living in Great Britain. This passage demonstrates the size of Great Britain to show the disproportionate literature and history that the country has produced. Bryson lists some classic pieces of British literature and remarks on how they were produced geographically close to one another.
To an American the whole purpose of living, the one constant confirmation of continued existence, is to cram as much as sensual pleasure as possible into one's mouth more or less continuously. Gratification, instant and lavish, is a birthright.
In this quote, Bryson is comparing outlining his perspective on being American. This is an important idea that is seen throughout the novel. In Notes from a Small Island, Bryson uses this perspective to examine life and culture in the UK in comparison to America.
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