The Road to Little Dribbling

If you harbor a secret disappointment that Bill Bryson doesn't read this sequel of sorts to NOTES FROM A SMALL ISLAND, rest assured--Nathan Osgood does a fine job channeling the slightly grouchy but nevertheless charming author. Osgood is outraged, droll, tolerant, or positively gushing when the text demands it. It isn't the places that Bryson visits around Britain--from bottom to top but otherwise randomly here and there--that stick with the listener, although his rapture at the splendid beauty of the countryside will. It's the people that Bryson meets and his reactions to them that remain etched in one's brain. Particularly hilarious is his wrath at rude English shopkeepers, an elderly woman who refuses to clean up after her dog, and architects with plans to pave over famous greenspaces. A.B. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine