1. William McGuire Bryson is an American-British journalist and author.
25 Facts About Bill Bryson
1. 2.
Bill Bryson has written a number of nonfiction books on topics including travel, the English language, and science.
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Bill Bryson served as the chancellor of Durham University from 2005 to 2011.
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In 1995, while in the United Kingdom, Bill Bryson authored Notes from a Small Island, an exploration of Britain.
5.
Bill Bryson had an older brother, Michael, and a sister, Mary Jane Elizabeth.
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In 2006, Bill Bryson published The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, a humorous account of his childhood years in Des Moines.
7.
Bill Bryson attended Drake University for two years before dropping out in 1972, deciding instead to backpack around Europe for four months.
8.
Bill Bryson returned to Europe the following year with a high school friend, Matt Angerer.
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Bill Bryson wrote about some of his experiences from the trip in his book Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe.
10.
Bill Bryson first visited Great Britain in 1973 during his tour of Europe and decided to stay after securing a job working in a psychiatric hospital, the now-defunct Holloway Sanatorium in Virginia Water, Surrey.
11.
Bill Bryson met a nurse there, Cynthia Billen, whom he married in 1975.
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Bill Bryson worked as a journalist, first for the Bournemouth Evening Echo, eventually becoming chief copy editor of the business section of The Times and deputy national news editor of the business section of The Independent.
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In November 2006, Bill Bryson interviewed the prime minister, Tony Blair, on the state of science and education.
14.
Bill Bryson released a podcast, Bill Bryson's Appliance of Science, in 2017.
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In 2013, Bill Bryson claimed copyright on an interview he had given nearly 20 years previously, after the interviewer republished it as an 8,000-word e-book.
16.
In 2005, Bill Bryson was appointed chancellor of Durham University, succeeding the late Sir Peter Ustinov.
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Bill Bryson had praised Durham as "a perfect little city" in Notes from a Small Island.
18.
Bill Bryson was made an honorary Officer of the Order of the British Empire for his contribution to literature on 13 December 2006.
19.
Bill Bryson's first focus in this role was the establishment of an anti-littering campaign across England.
20.
Bill Bryson discussed the future of the countryside with Richard Mabey, Sue Clifford, Nicholas Crane, and Richard Girling at CPRE's Volunteer Conference in November 2007.
21.
In 2011, Bill Bryson won the Golden Eagle Award from the Outdoor Writers and Photographers Guild.
22.
Bill Bryson was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society in 2013, becoming the first non-Briton to receive this honour.
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Bill Bryson is a popular author who is driven by a deep curiosity for the world we live in.
24.
Bill Bryson is a Vice President of the National Churches Trust.
25.
In January 2007, Bill Bryson was the Schwartz Visiting Fellow at the Pomfret School in Connecticut.