You’ll die of exposure or be eaten by predators long before you succumb to thirst.

One deviation from the trail is likely to result in death, since the woods are so dense that it’s easy to get lost, and then almost impossible for search and rescue to find you. Bryson and Katz leave prepared, weighed down by a dizzying array of equipment sold to them by earnest hiking specialists. He is accompanied by his old travelling companion Stephen Katz, a reformed alcoholic who has put on a lot of weight in the intervening years since their last adventure. Bryson was comfortably middle-aged at the time, and not a professional hiker. The route, mostly through densely-forested areas on America’s East coast, is over two thousand miles in length and takes travellers through fifteen states. The subtitle is ‘Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail’. ‘A Walk in the Woods’ recounts his time in his home country.

The title that preceded this one, ‘Notes from a Small Island’, was an affectionate look at his time in the British Isles, pointing out cultural differences between the two nations with his trademark observational wit and ability to richly convey small details.

Bryson is in the unusual position of being equally loved and feted on both sides of the Atlantic, where his wry sense of humour straddles both countries. The Folio Society’s edition of American polymath Bill Bryson’s celebrated travel book ‘A Walk in the Woods’ coincides with the twenty-fifth anniversary of its original publication.

A walk in woods book