But when asked repeatedly on a book tour if there was anything he didn't like about England, the Iowa-born author soon realised his biggest bugbear was litter - in particular, litter in the countryside.
'At the end of the tour, I had 1000 emails on the matter. So, I had an army of supporters, but then came the panic - I didn't know how to organise a campaign. I thought: "What do I do?".' Bryson, 56, says he has never been one to sit 'bitching' about a problem, and he soon found himself accepting an invitation to become president of 北京赛车pk10 to Protect Rural England (CPRE).
Bryson has chronicled his travels across the US, continental Europe, Britain and Australia since the late 80s, but returned to England five years ago to make Norfolk his home.
He blames the scourge of rubbish on the increasingly frenetic pace of modern life, with many people eating on the go and tossing the remnants from their car windows. CPRE estimates that 25m tonnes of litter is dumped across the country each year, five times more than 40 years ago. Bryson also indicates that social issues and standards are to blame: 'In the US, people don't throw their stuff out the window. They put it in the bin when they arrive at their destination; that's just doing the right thing. Something has gone wrong here in England.'
Bryson clearly takes his responsibilities seriously and he is now spearheading CPRE's 'Stop the drop' campaign, launched last week. Celebrity status will always draw attention to a cause, but Bryson, for all his fame, has no trace of celebrity in his manner and, despite admitting during his first presidential address that he has much to learn, he appears extremely knowledgeable about the litter issue.
He has found time to pen a cinema ad for the campaign in a bid to reach young men, whose co-operation he identifies as being key to solving the problem. He now hopes suitable brands will step forward to provide commercial assistance. 'The problem is how to reach a young male audience, and we thought amusing, witty ads could be a way. It would be wonderful if some enlightened firms would like to join us in this,' he says.
The ambitious campaign, created by Space, spans a host of marketing channels, but Bryson is keen to keep the message simple. 'We are not asking you to do anything but keep it with you until you get out the car and then put it in the bin. If you're so idle and cretinous you can't even do that, then someone has to force you to do it,' he says. The author is also in favour of government plans to introduce fines for people caught on surveillance cameras littering out of car windows, but would go further.
'I would fine them and put three points on their licence - people wouldn't do it then. Show them this is something you are serious about.'
His demeanour is relaxed and he is generally a softly spoken man, but Bryson has grown ever-more frustrated by what he sees as a simple problem. He applauds the government for taking a tougher stance on supermarket plastic bags in the budget, but describes the issue as only part of the problem. He supports a scheme currently operating in 11 US states, where consumers are charged 10c for every bottle purchased and only get this deposit back when they return it to a store. 'This would be an extremely effective solution. Tragically, the government seems to be opposed to it, insisting it wouldn't work,' he sighs.
The 'Thunderbolt Kid' describes his early life as that of an absent-minded dreamer, but today, his goals are tangible. What's more, he is going into battle as an eternal optimist. 'The litter problem doesn't depress me. It's a perfectly solvable problem. It's not like mad cow disease or Dutch Elm disease,' he points out. 'It could be stopped in an instant, so that's what we want to do.'
Career File:
- 1951 Born in Des Moines, Iowa, USA
- 1973 Visits UK as a backpacker
- 1990 Publishes The Mother Tongue
- 1995 Publishes Notes from a Small Island
- 1998 Publishes Notes from a Big Country
- 2003 Moves to Norfolk, where he lives today
- 2004 Wins the Aventis Prize for Science Books for A Short History of Nearly Everything and donates the £10,000 prize money to the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children
- 2006 Visits then-prime minister Tony Blair to discuss science and education
- 2006 Publishes The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid
- 2007-present President, CPRE