The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir

Unabridged
Author: Bill Bryson
Narrator: Bill Bryson
Genres: Non-Fiction
Publisher: BBC Audio
Date: October 2007
Length: 7 hours, 30 minutes
Ratings:
Formats:
  • WMA

Overview

Born in 1951 in the middle of the United States Des Moines, Iowa Bryson is perfectly positioned to mine his memories of a totally all-American childhood for twenty-four carat memoir gold.

Like millions of his generation, Bill Bryson grew up with a rich fantasy life as a superhero: in his case, he ran around the house wearing a jersey with a thunderbolt on it, and a towel round his neck that served as his cape, leaping tall buildings in a single bound and vanquishing evildoers (in his head) as The Thunderbolt Kid.

Using his old fantasy life as a springboard, Bill Bryson recreates the life of his family in the 1950s in all its transcendent normality. Warm and laugh-out-loud funny, The Thunderbolt Kid is full of Bill Bryson's inimitable, pitch-perfect observations.

Author Details

Author Details

Bryson, Bill

"Bill Bryson was born in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1951. A backpacking expedition in 1973 brought him to England where he met his wife and decided to settle. He wrote for the English newspapers The Times and The Independent for many years, writing travel articles to supplement his income. He lived with his family in North Yorkshire before moving back to the States in 1995, to Hanover, New Hampshire, with his wife and four children. In 2003 he and his family moved back to England, where they currently reside.

The Lost Continent, Bill Bryson's hilarious first travel book, chronicles a trip in his mother's Chevy around small town America. Since then, he has written several more about the UK and the US, including notable bestsellers, A Walk in the Woods, I'm A Stranger Here Myself (published in Britain as Notes from a Big Country), and In a Sunburned Country (published in Britain as Down Under).

His other books include Bill Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words, Neither Here nor There: Travels in Europe, Made in America, The Mother Tongue and Bill Bryson's African Diary. His latest book, A Short History of Nearly Everything, was published in Spring 2003."