The American author combines wit and reflections on the natural world as he tackles the Appalachian Trail, says Georgia Stephens
A Walk in the Woods starts, as no inspiring travelogue should, by going into the innumerable ways you can die on the Appalachian Trail. There are tree-crushings, lightning bolts, bears; short-sighted owls and eastern equine encephalitis. And then you get to the “loony hillbillies destabilised by impure corn liquor”. At no point over these introductory pages do you feel you want to actually go there. But Bill Bryson doesn’t have to sell it, does he?
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Georgia Stephens 