An old joke maintains that America and England are countries separated by a common language. And Yanks traveling across the pond, or Brits roaming the United States — particularly points south and west — can attest to that.
Which brings us to Bill Bryson, an Iowa-raised author who has spent the bulk of his adult life living in Great Britain. As a citizen of both countries, he serves as a sort of translator between the two cultures.
His latest outing, “The Road to Little Dribbling: Adventures of an American in Britain,” is Bryson at his best: witty, observant, insightful and erudite.
At 64, Bryson owns one of the more varied literary canons going. Among his more than 20 books are “The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid,” a memoir about his Midwestern childhood, “Shakespeare: The World as Stage,” “Bill Bryson’s African Diary,” “Notes From a Small Island” (England again) and “A Short History of Nearly Everything” (which is pretty much as advertised).
Then there is the book that put him on the map nearly 20 years ago, “A Walk in the Woods,” which chronicled the misadventures he and a friend had backpacking the Appalachian Trail. .
Bryson appears Monday at The Denver Post’s Pen & Podium program at the University of Denver’s Newman Center for the Performing Arts.
We caught up with him on his recent visit to Vail, where he and his wife, Cynthia, were visiting their son, who works for the ski patrol.
Q: You hold dual citizenship in the United States and the United Kingdom. Do you consider yourself an expat or someone who truly straddles the cultures of both countries?
A: More of the latter. Moving to England just happened to me as a young man, and I met a girl there. I didn’t leave America in a high dudgeon. This whole other existence I have in England is very nice, but I do get homesick.
Q: You seem equally at home in the worlds of science and literature. How did that come to be?
A: Well, that’s not really true. I could never be a scientist. I don’t have the brains or the discipline for most sciences. I also can’t see sticking with one subject my whole life. But I have great admiration for scientists and what they do. And I’m fascinated with what science does for us.
Still, I love the idea of moving into an area I know nothing about and then moving on from that.
Q: Would you care to comment on the 2016 presidential campaign?
A: I have no special interest in the election as a result of living abroad, but I will say that I am completely baffled by this year’s campaign. I’m a lifelong Democrat, but I’ve found myself not drawn to anyone. It’s a really strange and unpredictable election year.
There doesn’t seem to be a true front-runner. Most years you can kind of see history unfolding before your eyes. This year is exciting but slightly unnerving. We’ve moved so far away from the usual script. Who knows what the future holds?
Q: Is it hard to explain this year’s presidential primaries to your neighbors in Britain?
A: Trying to explain it to anyone is difficult. I was in San Francisco talking to an old friend — an American who really follows politics — and he was tongue-tied and mystified.
Q: “The Road to Little Dribbling” is another foray into life as an American in Great Britain. What do you make of the “special relationship” between the two countries, beyond the obvious colonial roots?
A: That “special relationship” is usually seen as a political relationship, based on the countries as wartime allies. But it’s so much more than that.
We share a language. Shakespeare is as fundamental to the U.S. as he is to Britain. And the same thing applies to Abraham Lincoln in England. It’s a real cultural cement and something to be treasured.
Q: Is there a single work of literature that changed your life?
A: It wasn’t one book but a random collection of books. They belonged to my dad when I was growing up in Des Moines. They were mainly Book of the Month Club books from the 1940s and 1950s. Kind of middlebrow best sellers.
I started digging into them in my teens. I decided that writing was what I wanted to do. It was really enchanting, independently discovering the joy of reading.
Q: You have done quite a bit of traveling. What is left on your must-see list?
A: Oh, so much! The world is a big place. I’ve never been to Russia, never been to India. There are huge areas of Africa and South America I’ve never seen.
I would love to do a book on Canada. In the U.S., we take Canada for granted. We just view them as this wonderful, faithful neighbor that never causes a fuss. I would love to explore it in more depth, and not just for the amazing food in Quebec City.
Q: What was it like watching “A Walk in the Woods” and seeing yourself portrayed by someone else, especially since that person was Robert Redford?
A: It was a very strange experience, as you can imagine. For the first two minutes it was surreal. Hey, that person up on the screen has my name.
But in the small things they changed, like my wife’s name, it reinforced the notion that, well, this is someone interpreting my life. That’s not my car or my house, and my home office is totally different. It pretty quickly set in that it wasn’t really me.
Q: The , yes or no? (This tradition, also known as the “fry-up,” includes fried eggs, bacon, black pudding, fried mushrooms, broiled tomato, baked beans and brown bread.)
A: I really like English food but would rather have an American breakfast. I can’t understand why the English are so proud of theirs. My wife and I went to IHOP the other day and I thought, “This is the life.”
Food and sports are the two things that I’m really American about. I’ve embraced soccer, but it hasn’t come close to displacing my passion for baseball.
William Porter: 303-954-1877, wporter@denverpost.com or @williamporterdp
BILL BRYSON IN COLORADO. The globetrotting author will make two area appearances.
Lecture and book signing at Colorado State University. March 6 at 2 p.m. Doors open 1:30 p.m. CSU’s Lory Student Center Grand Ballroom. $55 general admission, $25 CSU students. csutix.com or 970-491-4849.
Denver Post Post Pen & Podium series. Monday at 7:30 p.m. University of Denver’s Newman Center for the Performing Arts, 2344 E Iliff Ave. Sold out. penandpodium.com
