In a Sunburned Country

It is the driest, flattest, hottest, most infertile and climatically aggressive of all the inhabited continents, and still Australia teems with life — a large portion of it quite deadly.

Ignoring such dangers — and yet curiously obsessed by them — Bill Bryson journeyed to Australia and promptly fell in love with the country. And who can blame him? The people are cheerful, extroverted, quick-witted and unfailingly obliging. Their cities are safe and clean and nearly always built on water; the food is excellent; the beer is cold and the sun nearly always shines. Life doesn't get much better than this...