Bill Bryson, Esq, OBE

Career: travel writer; formerly newspaper journalist: chief copy ed business section The Times, dep nat news ed business section The Independent; cmmr English Heritage, pres Campaign to Protect Rural England 2007-; chllr Univ of Durham 2005-11; James Cameron Meml Lecture City Univ 2005; Hon DCL Univ of Durham 2004

Books and Publications: travel writing: The Lost Continent (1989), Neither Here Nor There (1991), Notes From a Small Island (1995, adapted for TV 1998, voted best portrayal of England World Book Day 2003), A Walk in the Woods (1997), Notes From a Big Country (1998), Down Under (2000), African Diary (charity book for CARE Int, 2002); other books incl: Mother Tongue (1990), Made In America (1994), Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words (2002), A Short History of Nearly Everything (2003, winner General Prize Aventis Prizes for Science Books 2004, shortlisted Samuel Johnson Prize 2004), The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid (memoir, 2006), Shakespeare: The World as Stage (2007), Bryson's Dictionary for Writers and Editors (2008), Icons of England (2008), At Home: A Short History of Private Life (2010)