Words of wisdom from Bill Bryson

I'm so relieved I didn't pass the books on as I often do.

Time for a re-read.

Luckygirl3

I think the best moment in Thunderbolt Kid is when he tells of a boyhood prank that involved going into a public toilet, entering a cubicle and locking the door, then crawling under all the neighbouring cubicles and locking those doors, exiting from the last one - what a monkey!

Oh dear, I know another schoolboy scamp who did something similar on a school trip.
Not my own DC but another young relative!
😲

Luckygirl3 - Bryson's views bear little resemblance to my experience in the UK. My father worked, my mother didn't. We had everything we needed - and plenty we didn't, plus endless holidays, days out, much relaxation and leisure.

My children, though, work incredibly hard, long hours to achieve a similar lifestyle. Now, there really is so much more to buy, horrendous bills, pressure to 'keep up with the Joneses' as never before.

Still, I do find his writing uplifting, amusing, hilarious at times.

Oh the best bit in The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid has to be the chapter where he relates the story of his neighbour diving into the local lake - it is absolutely hilarious and had me in tears. I am actually re-reading this book at the moment.

I think the best moment in Thunderbolt Kid is when he tells of a boyhood prank that involved going into a public toilet, entering a cubicle and locking the door, then crawling under all the neighbouring cubicles and locking those doors, exiting from the last one - what a monkey!

BB's mother was a journalist, as was his father.

I think the passage is using the journalist's trick of repeating 'received wisdom' (not necessarily correct) rather than reflecting his own view.

Soozikinzi

Bil Bryson is my favourite author by a country mile. I have read them all . Does anyone know a similar author I'm always searching for one ? Thanks .

My favourite author too. I'd really recommend 'The Body' to anyone who hasn't read it - chock full of interesting facts and information, all related in his unique style.
Soozikinzi - have you read Stuart Maconie's books? A bit similar, but very English. I enjoyed Pies and Prejudice and he has a new one called 'The Full English' which I haven't read yet. Also try the 'Narrow Dog' books by Terry Darlington.

Bill Bryson is a fabulous writer. My late husband always knew when it was a Bill Bryson book I was reading as I would constantly burst out laughing. I especially loved the part in the Thunderbolt Kid where he asks to go to the lavatory in his first year at school. When asked if it was a number one or a number two he needed he was totally flummoxed as he had never heard this before. After a moment to consider he said it would possibly be a number three. His teacher was enraged and he was sent out of class - something that was to become a regular occurrence throughout his schooldays. I can just picture this little boy answering in all innocence.

Love Bill Bryson, one of my favourite authors. Some of his books are hilarious; I just love his observations on his childhood in America and his take on the British way of life.

I've only just discovered Bill Bryson via this thread. Thank you all. I went straight down my local library and picked up a copy of The road to little dribbling. How I have belly laughed. Reading Bill's writing is like an old friend chatting to me ..so easy to read! I will be ordering more of his books very soon

Whatever he is worth he has earned every penny of it.

I have a soft spot for him because he is the same age as me.

Over a period of about a year I helped my friend by reading to her blind father, a 96 year old Dutchman who fought in the Second World War. My friend suggested starting with the Classics. Not a great hit.

Then I tried Mr Bryson's A Walk in the Woods. For the first time this dear old gentleman laughed. I wrote to Bill Bryson to tell him how much fun he was giving and he wrote back. A lovely letter from the heart.

I remember in the 1970s my DB and SisIL coming back from visiting relatives over there and the relatives had a dishwasher! 😲

My DB and SisIL then bought one and were the first people I knew to have one. It was great when we gathered there for family dinners.

Born at the very end of 50s .
Hard working parents.
Warm and well fed .
However we didn't have an automatic washing machine ( even when I married in 1981 ), colour tv, big car etc.
But my US uncle and his family had
all of these and more.
How did I know,...
Well he kept telling us.

Galaxy

Perhaps their husbands could have stayed at home.

Absolutely no reason why not Galaxy except that, having been trained by one of the services in the fifties under national service, men could generally command a better wage.

I think this stuff about women working to pay for more prestigious cars or two foreign holidays a year etc is utter tosh.

No doubt if my medic dd ever has children and takes time off work to care for them, those same people will be complaining of the expense of training doctors and only working part time.

I love Bill Bryson and have sniggered, chortled and laughed out loud even when alone whilst reading his books and particularly the Life and Times Of The Thunderbolt Kid.

His point from memory was that America had perfected the art of the Production Line so as soon as they became involved in WW 2 they switched to arms and just as easily switched back when it was all over to producing automatic washers, refrigerators, and other sort after goods for the “home maker” housewife’s of America.
Always bearing in mind they hadn’t experienced having their homes blown to kingdom come though.

Perhaps their husbands could have stayed at home.

Our economy is getting more and more bizarre. Most families now need two incomes to get by in terms of essential needs with a little bit left over for non essential but desirable expenditure. However the cost of childcare to enable this to happen for many families is now unaffordable for many on average salary or wages. So instead of the Government getting to the crux of the matter, which is the
social and financial imbalance between average net wages, housing costs, child care, energy and other and essential expenditure, the general tax payer now foots part of these bills, with complex funding administration arrangements, rather than businesses paying decent enough salaries for the ordinary average family to pay for own needs, and instead paying
larger profits out to shareholders. Surely profits should not be paid at the expense of wider society generally?

I remember at one point where the vast majority of women returners that I knew in my home town took a job to buy a car to drive to work where it sat in the car park until they went home again. They were materially only fractional, if that, better off but felt they had a better life. Meantime their kids were latchkey boys and girls. Have we REALLY progressed from the forties?

I think that for many families materialism is just exhausting. Usually both parents work, meaning that they have to pay for very expensive nursery care, school holiday care and wrap-around school care. This is to earn enough to fund their "two-foreign-holidays-a-year" habit or their desire for an all mod cons, bigger house in a nicer area, or a more prestigious car.

It's really a vicious cycle, you want more cash, you work more hours, you pay more for childcare. And you end up with less time with your family.

Can't people just be satisfied with a good simple life?

Of course I must exclude from this all those who have to work all the hours that they can in poorly paid jobs to simply exist, not a much better life than during the industrial revolution.

My daughter is a single parent of two adopted children and has a job which pays enough to enable her to lead a happy life. She's not desperately ambitious and her life is much better now than it would have been pre-covid because she can work from home some days. She's fortunate that her childcare is subsidised today, I don't think that today's parents fully realise how lucky they are. Many of us could not have paid for full-time childcare in the good old days, but this enabled/necessitated us being SAHMs, poorer but more time-rich.

From distant memory of the book, Bill Bryson’s mother worked, in a department store. He spoke of going there after school sometimes.

I do recall the book made me laugh like a drain - his poor uncle with the sore scalp! 😂

I too enjoy Bill Bryson's view of the world. Alexander McCall Smith is a favourite as well.

Bil Bryson is my favourite author by a country mile. I have read them all . Does anyone know a similar author I'm always searching for one ? Thanks .

Bill B was only writing about his own experience of life as it was when he was young. He wasn't trying to say it was the same for us over here.

I dare say that was tongue in cheek, though, Callistemon!

I think you're right, Witzend
It is a Bill Bryonism!
A wry look at the consumer society.