One Summer: America 1927 by Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson's eminently readable style makes this doorstopper of a book about one spectacular summer most enjoyable. It was much more focused than At Home and I learnt all kinds of fascinating things. Mainly about early aircraft.

He managed to highlight the web of connections between all the big players at the time - politicians, newspaper men, aviators, inventors, sports stars. He also used the summer of 1927 as a gateway to other history (this laid the foundations for that or was the culmination of this) though it does seem to have been a particularly packed season. I wondered if you could get a similar book out of any year or if there really was something special about this one.

Charles Lindbergh and various attempts at long-distance flights are the unifying thread to the book but even though I'm not especially interested in that, Bill Bryson made it captivating. It's the baseball sections that mystified me - he did throw in the odd explanation but I'm so unfamiliar with baseball that it didn't help. I'm afraid I sort of skimmed them in the same way I do the hunting interludes in Anthony Trollope, or cricket matches in PG Wodehouse.

All in all though, an entertaining book about an age and a place that much has been written about. Certainly read it if you've enjoyed Bryson's previous books regardless of subject matter, and give it a go if (like me) you have a certain fascination for 1920s America.