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Notes from a Small Island: An Affectionate Portrait of Britain Box Set
Price: $84.50 Prices subject to change.
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Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9780769725000
Format: Box set, Color, NTSC
ISBN: 0769725007
Label: Kultur Video
Manufacturer: Kultur Video
Number Of Items: 3
Publisher: Kultur Video
Release Date: September 28, 1999
Running Time: 180 minutes
Studio: Kultur Video
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Editorial Review:
Bill Bryson is the Charles Osgood of England, pointing out the offbeat pleasures of a land that makes him feel like he's "walking through yesterday." Except, Bryson affectionately points out, he happens to like yesterday. Bryson builds on his 1995 book Notes from a Small Island as he narrates a quirky, fact-filled tour that quietly hops from one odd observation to the next, from taxi drivers to cricket ("the only sport that incorporates meal breaks"). Two segments of the six-part show are contained in this first volume. There's poetic analysis of Liverpool's shrinking population, an examination of a man obsessed with building tunnels, and a look at the British at play. "British people don't like pleasure, they like to pass the time," says Bryson, a Midwestern American who spent 20 years in the land he's chronicling. He's created a video love letter with a quirky smile at its heart. --Valerie J. Nelson
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Review from a person from that small island!
I had the dubious pleasure of Bryson's self-satisfied ramblings in the book form of "Notes from a small island" a year or two ago. It was something to read at a time in my life when I had very little to do, I suppose!
This Christmas I had the even more dubious pleasure of seeing Mr Bryson on film presenting a screen adaption of his highly overrated work. As a travelogue in itself it is not bad at all. You do get quite a sense of the Ukfrom it. Pity about the presenter!
As an English ... Read More
Rating:  - Loving homage to a green and pleasant land
In 1973, a 21 year-old from Iowa in America's heartland was ferried into Dover, England. Despite having no particular intention of staying, travel essayist Bill Bryson was still there twenty years later, and married to an English lass. In 1995 he published an endearingly affectionate and light-hearted tribute to his adopted country, NOTES FROM A SMALL ISLAND, upon which book this set of three videos is based. Bryson himself is the on-screen host, adopting a homey style vaguely reminiscent of Charles Kuralt ... Read More
Rating: - A wonderful video
I have read all of Bill's books and loved them. The video is just as good. It is nice to see some of the places he so wonderfully described in the book "Notes from a Small Island." I found the book laugh out loud funny but touching and reflective at the same time. The video is just like that. I had the opportunity to meet Bill at a book signing last week and he is a wonderful guy in person. He took time out when we went up to have our books signed to talk with everybody for several minutes. It ... Read More
Rating: - An outsider turned native
Bryson's style of writing in his books, transfers well to his spoken commentary in this video. The insights and stories he finds to fill his books are complemented by interviews with a vareity of people from London cabbies to comedians.
As an American who lived in Britain for 20 years and who married a British woman, Bryson is well placed to affectionately poke fun at the absurdities of British life. As a Brit who has moved to America, I could identify with his slight feeling of homesickness for the ... Read More
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