description: These evocative descriptions of Australia and its lifestyle are accurate and interesting. Facts, figures, history, extent and division of territories, flora and fauna; how they look, how deadly or how tame they are, and how many of them exist, will stir exciting memories for those who have been Down Under and paint a precise picture in the mind for those who haven't.  Events, how people look and what they say are recorded faithfully and with master of observation Bill Bryson's wonderful facility for making you laugh out loud, there are plenty of reasons for doing so. His running commentary on a radio broadcast cricket match, a game about which he knows nothing, is brilliantly inventive. There's not a single actual word or expression associated with the game but the nuance is stunning. Spiky conversations with his English producer friend as they drive to Ayres Rock, the sighting of a rotary clothes-line in the depths of the outback, confrontations with receptionists and waiters, a beer-drinking man at the bar of the Nambucca telling him "Dining room's closed mate. The chef's crook. Must have ate some of his own cooking" and a full tuckerbag more, are entertainingly, albeit rather hastily, delivered by the reader. --Running time 3 hours -- Lyn Took
language: English
title: Down Under: Travels in a Sunburned Country
titlecomplete: Down Under: Travels in a Sunburned Country
genres: Audiobook, Australia, Biography, Travel, Travelogue, Nonfiction, Adventure, History, Memoir, Humor
ratings_count: 109140
places: Australia, Alice Springs, Outback, Northern Territory, New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales
awards: awardedAt: 978336000000
name: Puddly Award
category: Travel Writing, awardedAt: 978336000000
name: Thurber Prize
category: American Humor
publisher: Corgi Audio