By Bill Bryson

FROM CHAPTER 1: “In the late summer of 1996, an old journalist friend from London named Simon Kelner called me in New Hampshire, to where I had lately moved after living for twenty-some years in Britain. Simon had recently been made editor of Night& Day magazine, a supplement ofthe Mail on Sunday newspaper, and it was his idea that I should write a weekly column for him on America. At various times over the years Simon had persuaded me to do all kinds of work that I didn't have time to do, but this was way out of the question.

"No," I said. "I can't. I'm sorry. It's just not possible. I've got too much on."

"So can you start next week?"

"Simon, you don't seem tounderstand. I can't do it."

"We thought we'd call it 'Notes from a Big Country.'" "Simon, you'll have to call it 'Big Blank Space in the Magazine' because I cannot do it."

NY. Broadway Books. 1999. 299p.

By Nino Culotta

From the cover: Cop This Lot by Nino Culotta (John O’Grady) is the hilarious sequel to the well-known They’re a Weird Mob. In Cop This Lot we enjoy once more the magnificent humour that comes from genuine Australian dialogue, and the lovable charac­ter of Nino, the friendly Italian migrant bent on becoming a 'dinkum Aussie’. A new note of hilarity is reached when Nino’s workmates, Joe and Dennis, accompany him on a visit to Nino’s parents in Italy. Their struggles with the Continental way of life enable Nino to get his own back, and provide countless laughs for the reader. Illustrated by WEP

Sydney. Ure Smith. 1960. 216p.