On a backpacking expedition through Europe in 1973, Bill Bryson found his life’s calling as a writer and world traveler. Settling in England after marrying, he became a reporter for the English newspapers The Times and The Independent, supplementing his income as a travel writer by entertaining readers with his passion for exploring new places and his humorous insights on the commonplace.

In 1989, Bryson published his first travel book, The Lost Continent, a hilarious memoir of taking trips through small-town America in his mother’s Chevy. Since then, he has become one of the world’s most beloved and prolific writers, chronicling everything from hiking the Appalachian Trail in the immensely popular A Walk in the Woods to his experience of moving from England to the United States in I’m a Stranger Here Myself. TIME magazine recently listed A Walk in the Woods as one of its “All-TIME 100 Best Nonfiction Books.”

For his quirky observations and comic sensibility, the New York Times declared Bryson “the most literate [travel] guide you’ve ever had,” and the Chicago Sun-Times claims, “Bill Bryson could write an essay about dryer lint or fever reducers and still make us laugh out loud.” An Aventis Award-winner for best general science book for A Short History of Nearly Everything and a recipient of an honorary OBE (Order of the British Empire) for his contribution to literature, Bryson is as unassuming as any Iowa-born, British citizen might be. Regaling audiences with his funny, truthful, and eye-opening tales, he charms them with the same warmth, goofy wit, and dry, self-effacing humor that has made his writing so appealing.
 
Bryson’s most recent books include 2006’s memoir, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, At Home: A Short History of Private Life in 2010, as well as several volumes on the idiosyncrasies of the English language, including Bryson’s Dictionary for Writers and Editors. Bryson is currently working on a new book titled Next Summer, which is scheduled for release in Fall 2013.