Countryside Crusader
Above: Bill Bryson
Above: Bill Bryson
Above: Bill Bryson
BILL Bryson found fame as a travel writer and he is still on the move. After 10 years in journalism he wrote the first of his shelf full of best-sellers and he is now president of the Campaign to Protect Rural England.
His books are laced with humour and charm derived from his viewpoint as a fascinated and slightly bewildered outsider. He has a great affection for Britain and its countryside, for example, in his book Notes from a Small Island he says “one of the primary reasons so much of the British landscape is so unutterably lovely and timeless is that most farmers, for whatever reason, take the trouble to keep it that way. I realised what it was that I loved about Britain – which is to say, all of it.”
But although he is, as he is always described, affable, cheery and jolly, he is starting to get angry. For example, in the same book he says of Liverpool, one of the places he visits on his travels around the country: “They were having a festival of litter when I arrived. Citizens had taken time off from their busy activities to add crisp packets, empty cigarette boxes and carrier bags to the ... landscape.”
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His presidency of the CPRE therefore follows a long-running personal crusade against litter, but he maintains the air of an accidental hero. The growing piles of litter he saw as he travelled the country annoyed him and he began to ask people at book signings and lectures to contact him if they too felt something ought to be done. He ended up with more than 900 emails in his inbox.
“I found myself at the head of this small army of disgruntled people and I didn’t know what to do with them,” he says. “I thought, I don’t know how to run a campaign – what am I thinking of? But I figured that those 900 people were just a specimen sample of the strength of feeling out there and that we must tap into this in some way and see if we can’t make a difference.”
He approached the CPRE where he was welcomed with open arms and will be officially elected as their president for the next five years, taking over from newspaper columnist and military historian Sir Max Hastings at the annual meeting this month.
“Litter and fly-tipping are particular problems I’d like to see progress on; that has got much, much worse in the time I’ve been over here. It is becoming a chronic problem in some parts of the country and I think it needs to be much more of a priority.
“I have said there should be a shoot to kill policy for offenders – maybe that’s a bit much but I do think there should be stiffer fines and community service orders for fly-tippers. That would get the message across loud and clear that it will not be tolerated. A fine of £250 for dropping litter and £2,500 for fly-tipping would surely make people think twice.”
To view the full article in the Sussex Life digital edition click here
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