Bill Bryson

Author

Chair , 2015

Bill Bryson is a bestselling author whose books have sold more than 16 million copies and been translated into more than 30 languages.

His science book 'A Short History of Nearly Everything' won the 2004 Aventis Prize of the Royal Society and the Descartes Prize, the European Union’s highest literary award. His other books include: 'Notes from a Small Island'; 'A Walk in the Woods'; 'Down Under'; 'The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid'; 'At Home: A short history of private life'; 'One Summer: America, 1927'; and the biography 'William Shakespeare: The world as stage'. He was editor of the Royal Society’s 350th anniversary book, 'Seeing Further'. Before becoming a full-time freelance writer, he worked as a journalist, principally on the Times, and he was one of the founding journalists on the Independent. He was born in the American Midwest but has spent most of his adult life in England.