The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid

£7.99

SIGNED COPIES!

Bill Bryson takes a look back at his childhood, a seemingly idyllic time in 1950s Des Moines, Iowa. It was a time when America was growing up, when they discovered that after the Second World War they had $26 billion worth of factories that weren’t there before and that they had $140 billion in war bonds and savings waiting to be spent.

People were genuinely excited by the owning of new appliances such as refrigerators and toasters, such wealth had never been felt before. Americans made up five per cent of the planet’s population, owned 80 per cent of the world’s electrical goods and had more wealth than the other 95 per cent combined.

Unlike Bryson’s other books, we don’t travel to another place here, but to another time. He takes a similar style in his discussion though, filling the book with bizarre and amusing facts, and balancing the humour with the history. This personal journey took place in a thrilling and confusing time, serene and yet unnerving, just like Bryson’s own childhood.