When Bill Bryson decided to take his family back to America for a while, he took one last tour around the British Isles. After the very humorous and bestselling accounts of his trips to Europe ("Neither Here Nor There") and back to small-town America ("The Lost Continent"), he takes stock of the nation that has produced Marmite, place names like Farleigh Wallopp and Titsey, and programmes like "Gardeners' Question Time". "Not a book that should be read in public, for fear of emitting loud snorts" "The Times".