After nearly two decades in Britain, Bill Bryson made the decision to move back to the States for a while, to let his kids experience life in another country, to give his wife the chance to shop until 10 p.m. seven nights a week, and, most of all, because he had read that 3.7 million Americans believed that they had been abducted by aliens at one time or another, and it was thus clear to him that his people needed him.But before leaving his much-loved home in North Yorkshire, Bryson insisted on taking one last trip around Britain, a sort of valedictory tour of the green and kindly island that had for so long been his home. His aim was to take stock of the nation’s public face and private parts (as it were), and to analyze what precisely it was he loved about a country that had produced Marmite, a military hero whose dying wish was to be kissed by a fellow named Hardy, place names like Farleigh Wallop, Titsey, and Shellow Bowells, people who said “Mustn’t grumble,” and shows like “Gardener’s Question Time.”

在英国生活了近20年后，比尔-布赖森决定搬回美国住一段时间，让他的孩子们体验另一个国家的生活，让他的妻子有机会每周七天晚上购物到10点，而且，最重要的是，因为他读到有3。 但在离开他深爱的北约克郡的家之前，布赖森坚持要在英国进行最后一次旅行，对这个长期以来一直是他的家的绿色和善良的岛屿进行一次告别式的旅行。他的目的是评估这个国家的公众形象和私人部分（如它），并分析他到底喜欢这个国家的什么，这个国家产生了玛米特，一个军事英雄，他的临终愿望是被一个叫哈代的人亲吻，法利沃勒普、提西和谢洛鲍尔等地名，那些说 "不能抱怨 "的人，以及 "园丁提问时间 "等节目。