Bryson, Bill (1951– )

US writer. He is popular in both the USA and UK for his perceptive, insightful, and comical writing. His works include several travel books, for example The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America (1988) and Notes From a Small Island (1997), as well as studies of the English language, for example The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way (1991) and Bryson's Book of Troublesome Words (2002).

He was previously a reporter for the English newspapers The Times and The Independent. He has lived in both the UK and the USA for extended periods, and many of his books examine, to hilarious effect, the differences between British and US language and culture. Other works include A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail (1997) and Down Under (2000), the popular science book A Short History of Nearly Everything (2003), and the memoir The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid (2006).

He was appointed chancellor of Durham University in 2005 and was awarded an OBE for his contribution to literature in 2006. He became president of the Campaign to Protect Rural England in 2007.