Some say that the first hint that Bill Bryson was not of Planet Earth came when his mother sent him to school in limegreen Capri pants.

Others think it all started with his discovery at the age of six of a woollen jersey of rare fineness.

Across the mothholed chest was a golden thunderbolt.

It may have looked like an old college football sweater but young Bryson knew better.

It was obviously the Sacred Jersey of Zap and proved that he had been placed with this innocuous family in the middle of America to fly become invisible shoot guns out of peoples hands from a distance and wear his underpants over his jeans in the manner of Superman.

Bill Brysons first travel book opened with the immortal line I come from Des Moines.

Somebody had to.

In his deeply funny new memoir he travels back in time to explore the ordinary kid he once was and the curious world of 1950s America.

It was a happy time when almost everything was good for you including DDT cigarettes and nuclear fallout.

This is a book about growing up in a specific time and place.

But in Brysons hands it becomes everyones story one that will speak volumes especially to anyone who has ever been young.

Product Details Paperback Book Author Bill Bryson Genre Autobiography / Biography Publisher Random House ISBN 9780552772549