Down Under

It is the driest, flattest, hottest, most desiccated, infertile and climatically aggressive of all the inhabited continents and still Australia teems with life - a large portion of it quite deadly. In tact, Australia has more things that can kill you in a very nasty way than anywhere else. Ignoring such dangers - and yet curiously obsessed by them - Bill Bryson journeyed to Australia and promptly fell in love with the country. And who can blame him ? The people are cheerful, extrovert, quick-witted and unfailingly obliging : their cities are safe and clean and nearly always built on water ; the food is excellent ; the beer is cold and the sun nearly always shines. Life doesn't get much better than this...