At Home

A work of constant delight and discovery. Bryson’s wit is both dry and charmingly goofy. His great skill is to make daily life simultaneously strange and familiar, and in so doing, help us to recognise ourselves. At Home is a treasure: don’t leave home without it. – Judith Flanders * Sunday Telegraph *Enchanting…a book about reinventing the ordinary, and finding the extraordinary in the humdrum business of living…Bryson tackled science in his brilliant A Short History of Nearly Everything. This new book could as easily be categorised as ‘a short history of nearly everything else’…extraordinarily entertaining. – Antonia Senior * The Times *The much-loved writer takes the attention to detail that made A Short History of Nearly Everything such a fantastic guide to all things science, and applies it to our homes. Written in his laid-back style, this is a wonderful celebration of what makes a house a home. * News of the World *Quite as ambitious as his A Short History of Nearly Everything. This is a genuinely compelling book…a kind of layman’s encyclopaedia full of ‘did you know’ moments…This companionable volume is as dense as a rich fruit cake and, by the same measure, rewarding, too. * Country Life *A charming read that blends scholarship with warm writing and provides an endless source of banter for dinner parties. * Good Housekeeping *The method is to amass a dazzling number of facts and findings from disparate sources…riveting…arguing with Bryson is part of the enjoyment of reading him, and accompanying him across swathes of layered history. – Victoria Glendinning * Spectator *By rummaging down the back of the nation’s sofa, Bryson has come up with a light-hearted and endlessly fascinating story…What you want from him is his wry humour and ability to raise a quizzical eyebrow at the sheer oddness of the human race. – Kathryn Hughes * Mail on Sunday *Bryson hoards facts. He can’t resist a well-turned story…An idiosyncratic sweep through the makings of modernity. * Observer *At Home takes us on a tour not merely of Bryson’s house but of the amazingly well-stocked mind of a man who can see a world in a grain of sand. He addresses his readers as if they were welcome visitors to his home whom he is eager both to inform and to entertain; he is a guide of inexhaustible patience, good humour, and irresistible enthusiasm. – Susan Hill * The Lady *Entertaining, fact-packed…He is a cheery,idiosyncratic guide, eclectic rather than scholarly, a true populariser. At Home will have every reader eyeing home rather differently. * Financial Times *

Bill Bryson was born in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1951. His bestselling books include The Road to Little Dribbling, Notes from a Small Island, A Walk in the Woods, One Summer and The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid. In a national poll, Notes from a Small Island was voted the book that best represents Britain. His acclaimed work of popular science, A Short History of Nearly Everything, won the Aventis Prize and the Descartes Prize, and is the biggest selling non-fiction book of the 21st century. The Body- A Guide for Occupants was shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize and is an international bestseller.

Bill Bryson was Chancellor of Durham University 2005-2011. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society. He lives in England.