Travel Memoir England

In the first of three essays included in this audiobook, Bill Bryson decides to move his wife and kids back to his homeland, the United States, after nearly two decades in Britain. But not before taking one last trip around Britain, a sort of valedictory tour of the green and kindly island that had so long been his home. The result is a hilarious social commentary.

About the Book In his latest book, Paul Amess braves cold rain, hot tea, a leaky tent and a heroic old bike through a countryside crammed with stories. This laugh-out-loud, oddly uplifting ride across the Pennines proves that everything can go wrong in the most entertaining way and still end exactly right. When a knackered cyclist points his wheels from Peak Forest to Street, he expects hills. He does not expect randy hedgehogs at 3 a.m., duels with homicidal goats, cliff-edge “paths” that feel like practical jokes, or a greatest-hits tour of Britain’s strangest history. Along the way...

One dad, the one teenager, and 215 miles. Trail and Error is the hilarious, chaotic, and occasionally muddy tale of our attempt to cross England without losing our boots, our tempers, or each other. What do you get when you mix one middle-aged dad, a sarcastic teenage son, a map they barely read, and 215 miles of British countryside? A masterclass in how not to walk across England. Join me and my 15-year-old son, Max, as we tackle the Trans Pennine Trail — from the Irish Sea to the North Sea — one blister, one rainstorm, and one wrong turn at a time. Along the way, we encounter ...

As much about the life of the city as it is about a life lived, sometimes, in the city, John Banville's "quasi-memoir" is as layered, emotionally rich, witty, and unexpected as any of his novels. Born and bred in a small town a train ride away from Dublin, Banville saw the city as a place of enchantment when he was a child, a birthday treat, the place where his beloved, eccentric aunt lived.

Here is the story of the infamous 1910 race to the South Pole, as told by its fearless yet desperate leader, Robert Falcon Scott. The New York Times called Scott's Last Expedition "A splendid record of heroism not soon to be forgotten."

In the 1970s, Madeleine Blais's in-laws purchased a vacation house on Martha's Vineyard for the exorbitant sum of $80,000. Two-point-two miles down a poorly marked, one lane dirt road, the house was better termed a shack - it had no electricity, no modern plumbing, the roof leaked, and mice had invaded the walls. It was perfect. Sitting on Tisbury Great Pond - well-stocked with oysters and crab for foraged dinners - the house faced the ocean and the sky, and though it was eventually replaced by a sturdier structure, the ethos remained the same.

Lost in time for generations, the story of a 19th-century English gentleman in British India - a family mystery of love found and loyalties abandoned, finally brought to light. In 1841, 20-year-old Nigel Halleck set out for Calcutta as a clerk in the East India Company. He went on to serve in the colonial administration for eight years before abruptly leaving the company under a cloud and disappearing in the mountain kingdom of Nepal, never to be heard from again.

London is one of my most favorite cities, not only in Europe, but also in the entire world. And I love England and the rest of the U.K. as well. And while London is always exciting for me to visit, it is the whole of the United Kingdom that remains particularly etched in my memories.