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I felt that this was the flattest Bryson I have yet read. It felt slightly more engaged when he dealt with the mysterious disappearance of former Prime Minister Harold Holt while swimming, but otherwise it read as though he and his publishers were simply determined to crank out another travelogue and Australia was one place they hadn't covered so far. In my memory it compares unfavourably with a three part National Geographic series I read about a man who cycled round Australia - but then their photographs are hard to beat.

Because he stresses so often how extrovert and friendly all Australians are, what stands out is how rarely he talks to anybody and if he does, how brief the conversations are, perhaps Bryson has a prophylactic personality.

Very middle of the road. An ok read but nothing special, apart from that his persona of a bumbling, ineffectual, Colonel Blimp in training, turns out actually to be his personality, his habit of winging it - evident in his other travel books too - confronted by the size of Australia means he spends a lot of time nowhere in particular or on the bare featureless Nullarbor plain, which I did learn (view spoiler)[ thanks Bill! (hide spoiler)] is one of those comedy Latin place names - no tree plain in plain English. In short Australia's a big place if you are going to visit spend some time with a map first rather than be disappointed later.