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Bill Bryson is an American born journalist who, by his very nature, investigates things that do not necessarily need investigating. Like the fifth Duke of Portland, W.J.C. Scott-Bentinck. Walking a day out of his way, as he often does on his self-guided By Public Transit Tour of the British Isle, Bryson visits the former home of this reclusive (and dead for fifty years) Duke in order to relieve a minor obsession he has with the man. Yes, this is the tour guide leading us through Great Britain. It must be said that, aside from the occasional (and by occasional, I mean usually once a page) use of the “F” word, Bryson is a very funny man. The book reads like an extended editorial. Bryson fills his story with cute quips, like the aforementioned example, as well as a few notes about his past in the small island. He also uses ocasional local slang to remind us of where he is. (Note: I figured out that the word “fag” in England refers to a cigarette after a hastily placed IM to a friend in London. ) Bryson starts us out in France, looking across the English Channel to Dover. He retells his story of how he, a very green young man, first went to England to see... well, he doesn’t really say what his intent was. But he is a