Down Under

Bryson’s various travelogues give you such colourful views of the places he visits and, if you’re journeying to Australia, Down Under is a must-read. Expertly combining sharp observations, unusual factual snippets, and incisive wit, the pictures he paints will inspire you to travel and see it for yourself... or alternatively, persuade you to avoid it at all cost. Whichever the result, you will be amply entertained. 

I had great intentions of reading this before my Australia holiday but afterwards it was!  

The book combines experiences from several trips Bill made in Australia, the first on the Indian Pacific train, from Sydney to Perth. Other places he writes about in this travelogue include the Gold Coast, Queensland, Canberra, Adelaide, Melbourne, Uluru, Alice Springs, Darwin, Cairns, the Great Barrier Reef, and Western Australia including Perth. 

I enjoyed the variety in the book ranging from factual research, anecdotes, humor, and descriptions of nature helping me visualize what he saw. Accounts of conversations he had with local people he met… show more.

I adore Australia and was looking forward to reading this highly acclaimed book. I certainly wasn’t disappointed although it might be better-titled Everything in Australia Wants to Kill You. I live in Australia. I knew about the sharks, box jellyfish, heat, and lethal currents. I knew about the spiders and snakes. But I’d never heard of the seashell that actually chases you.

I was given a second-hand edition of this travelogue. Somebody had scribbled in the margins “eek!” and “yikes” which gave me yet another dimension to my reading. This book is funny and engaging with just an edge of… show more.

Bill Bryson is one of today’s best travel writers with the sharpest sense of humor. He applies that wit and his curiosity to Australia in Down Under: Travels in a Sunburned Country, helping us understand that continent-sized country, its wildlife, history, and desolate landscape without boring us one minute. Published eleven years ago, Bryson cast a naturalist eye at Australia’s dry outback, with a clear-eyed description of the dry, almost alien country that seems prescient in the age of the Climate Crisis.