书名：Notes from a Small Island 小不列颠札记
作者：Bill Bryson
出版社名称：Harper Perennial
出版时间：2001
语种：英文
ISBN：9780380727506
商品尺寸：13.5 x 2.1 x 20.3 cm
包装：平装
页数：282

Notes from a Small Island《“小不列颠”札记》是世界知名的旅游文学作家比尔·布莱森写的旅行随笔，讲述作者在回故乡美国之前进行的一次“英国环岛告别之旅”。书中记录了旅途中英国村镇的风貌、人文景观，以及英国人乐观的生活现状，是一次深入英国人的灵魂和其居住地的旅行。

媒体评论：
“布莱森能够以幽默动人的方式把嘲弄发扬成一种文化，以至那些被奚落的对象也捧腹大笑而无法动怒，这一点上无人能及。”——《华尔街日报》
“布莱森是一个好旅伴，是一个具有深刻观察力的人，他对滑稽的事物总有一种特别的鉴赏力。”——《纽约时报书评》

“布莱森兼具观察家和幽默家的无限才能，这使他的随笔无论在什么背景下都值得一读……他再次证明了自己是当代有影响力的游记作家。”——《列克星顿先驱领袖报》

After nearly two decades in Britain, Bill Bryson, the acclaimed author of such best-sellers asThe Mother Tongue andMade in America, decided it was time to move back to the United States for a while. This was partly to let his wife and kids experience life in Bryson’s homeland—and partly because he had read that 3.7 million Americans believed that they had been abducted by aliens at one time or another. It was thus clear to him that his people needed him. But before leaving his much-loved home in North Yorkshire, Bryson insisted on taking one last trip around Britain, a sort of valedictory tour of the green and kindly island that had so long been his home. His aim was to take stock of modern-day Britain, and to analyze what he loved so much about a country that had produced Marmite, zebra crossings, and place names like Farleigh Wallop, Titsey, and Shellow Bowells. With characteristic wit and irreverence, Bill Bryson presents the ludicrous and the endearing in equal measure. The result is a hilarious social commentary that conveys the true glory of Britain.

在英国生活了将近二十年后，一种奇怪的冲动牢牢地攥住了作者，他决定回到那块青春时的土地，重新认识他的祖国。布莱森画出一条绝妙的环形路线，足以带他走遍这块奇异而又广大的异乡土地。四十八个州中，除了十个南边的州，他游览了其余的三十八个州，驱车一万三千九百七十八英里。布莱森看到了许多想看的，也看到了许多不想看的：长得看不到尽头的洲际公路，令人蠢蠢欲动的大城市，被地图遗忘的破落小镇；各种稀奇古怪的博物馆，塞满旅行车的国家公园，让人瞠目结舌的大峡谷，一条可穿越树的路，还有诸多被商业化了的名人故居……在夹杂着陌生、矛盾、无聊和惊喜的过程中，布莱森找到了原以为早已失落的大陆，也在打开心门之后看到了真实的美国。

比尔·布莱森，世界知名的非虚构作家，1951年出生于美国艾奥瓦州，曾任职于伦敦《泰晤士报》与《独立报》，同时也为《纽约时报》、《国家地理杂志》等刊物撰文。作品主要包括旅游类随笔、幽默独特的科普作品——比如《万物简史》、《母语》等等，横跨多种领域，皆为非学院派的幽默之作。他的作品诙谐嘲谑的风格能让普通读者产生很强的认同感，不失为雅俗共赏的典范。他擅长用不同的眼光来看待他所游历的世界，真切地捕捉到了一个旅人的内心感受。自然地理、生活情趣、社会时态，布莱森信手拈来。他的尖刻加上他的博学，让他的文字充满了智慧、机敏和幽默。作为在英国生活了二十多年的美国人，他的作品又兼具了开朗风趣、绝不怕粗俗的美式调侃和冷峻犀利、一针见血的英式嘲讽。 

Bill Bryson,bestselling author ofA Walk in the Woods,I’m a Stranger Here Myself, andIn a Sunburned Country, received the Aventis Prize in 2004 forA Short History of Nearly Everything. Born in Des Moines, Iowa, he now lives in Norfolk, England, with his wife and children.

There are certain idiosyncratic notions that you quietly come to accept when you live for a long time in Britain. One is that British summers used to be longer and sunnier. Another is that the England soccer team shouldn’t have any trouble with Norway. A third is the idea that Britain is a big place. This last is easily the most intractable. If you mention in the pub that you intend to drive from, say, Surrey to Cornwall, a distance that most Americans would happily go o get a taco, your companions will puff their cheeks, look knowingly at each other, and blow out air as if to say, “Well, now, that’s a bit of a tall order,” and then they’ll launch into a lively and protracted discussion of whether it’s better to take the A30 to Stock- bridge and then the A303 to Ilchester, or the A361 to Glastonbury via Shepton Mallet. Within minutes the conversation will plunge off into a level of detail that leaves you, as a foreigner, swiveling your head in quiet wonderment. “You know that lay-by outside Warminster, the one with the grit box with the broken handle?” one of them will say. “You know, just past the turnoff for Little Puking but before the B6029 mini- roundabout.” At this point, you find you are the only person in the group not nodding vigorously. “Well, about a quarter of a mile past there, not the first left turning but the second one, there’s a lane between two hedgerows— they’re mostly hawthorn but with a little hazel mixed in. Well, if you follow that road past the reservoir and under the railway bridge, and take a sharp right at the Buggered Ploughman—” “Nice little pub,” somebody will interject—usually, for some reason, a guy in a bulky cardigan. “They do a decent pint of Old Toejam.” “—and follow the dirt track through the army firing range and round the back of the cement works, I drops down onto the B3689 Ram’s Dropping bypass. It saves a good three or four minutes and cuts out the rail crossing at Great Shagging.” “Unless, of course, you’re coming from Crewkerne,” someone else will add knowledgeably. “Now, if you’re coming from Crewkerne…”

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