WALKABOUT

Combined in one block-buster of an omnibus now are Bryson's Down Under, an account of his memorable walk across Australia, and the irresistibly funny A Walk in the Woods, that tells of his lengthy stroll in the Appalachian mountains of America, with his old friend Stephen Katz. Bill Bryson traversed the length and breadth of Australia to bring us Down Under. A household name, synonymous with laugh-out-loud humour, sniggering, and outbursts of chortling, Down Under is what's commonly known as the perennial classic. In the very same volume is a story of his walk down the longest continuous footpath in the world. The Appalachian Trail stretches along the East Coast of the United States, from Georgia to Maine, through some of the most arresting and celebrated landscapes in America - the Smoky Mountains, Shenandoah National Park, the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts and the Great North Woods of Maine. Read them both, now, together.