Just reread Bill Bryson's "Notes From a Small Island". It's a book about a trip he takes through Britain, sort of a 'good-bye' journey, before he moves back to the US after 20 years. Now, on the whole, Britain comes off pretty well. His obvious love for the place shines through, and he has a lot of nice things to say. However, he can also be pretty scathing - this is a man who has a way with words, and some of his judgements must make people cringe. To me, sitting here on the other side of the world, it's all very amusing, but I doubt if it feels so good if your well-loved home is the object of one of his rants.
My own home town has received some pretty bad press - it's a newish, isolated city, whose charms are not the type, in general, that would be obvious to the casual observer. One of those "Great place to live there, but I wouldn't want to visit" type places. In one quite stinging review, the architecture was described as "the boxes that real buildings come in".
So, how does your home come off in travel writing? Are the tourist guides accurate, or are they hateful and wrong?

Travel writers don't stop here unless it's for gas or food. They are on their way to find other scenic views and charm in the western part of the state.
If you have seen cows, deer, antelope, rabbits, hawks, rainbow trout, elk, and the Prebles jumping mouse you have seen our area. The jackalope is native to Douglas, Wyoming, just up the road. The wagon ruts from countless western migrating wagon trains are still visible after 150 years, worn into rock if you can believe that.
Not many trees, but mountain views to the west, and to the east: tabletop mesas.
This is also a "great place to live, but you wouldn't want to visit."

I don't know. I would love to visit this town. I would love to visit Wyoming. I would love to see those wagon ruts. That's something to see, I think.

I come from two places, Montreal, which is a bone fide great place to visit on just about every level, but can be a problematic place to live.

On the other hand Hradec Kralove, where I've been for 9 years, is officially a great place to live, but worth only a morning's look-in. The town has won (three years running) the national 'Best Place to Live In' award and this is not a big surprise. It boasts a lovely historical centre, but you can do that in about 10 minutes. What makes the inhabitants happy are the parks and green spaces, the cleanliness, the obvious prosperity, the jobs and the services. Also, it's completely off the beaten tourist track, so there are no tourist busses and spectacular prices. Both places are great, but I'd still like to go to Wyoming...

Bill Bryson has been known to slag his own home town of Des Moines, Iowa on more than one occasion.

In any case, I am going to see him on Friday night which I am quite looking forward to. Very talented guy, not just on his travel writing escapades. Incidentally, he has now gone back to England to live.

Maybe I could ask him some questions.

Exit, is this like a lecture tour or something? I'd love to hear him speak - I'm a big fan.

There are enough brochures, advertisements, and news articles about my town to paper the walls with. It would be nice to have a few less tourists - but then, we would have even less of an economy than we do now.

agony,

It was very disappointing. It was the last night of the 'tour' so he decided not to put as much in I guess. There was a little bit of chat and some readings from his books which were funny and then he opened the audience up for questions. The whole thing was less than an hour, probably closer to 45 minutes and there must have been close to 400 people there.

Unfortunately I forgot to ask questions about slagging off at towns.

Oh, too bad. I hate it when that happens. At least he is an entertaining reader (of his own sutff, anyway). I've read several of his books as "books on tape", with Bryson reading.

I read loads of travel books and i've noticed that the modern day writers take a very cynical look at the people and places they travel through. To be fair they tend to treat themselves the same way. But it gets so tiresome, they all trying to be clever, wry, whimsical.
I'm currently reading William Golding's Egyptian Journals, he and his wife travel down the Nile on a boat (whatelse?). Even he has fallen into the same trap.
Bill Bryson is a little more gentle than most, i enjoy the two books of his I've read, Walk in the Woods and the one where he drives around America.
The solution to these cynical productions , ive found, is to read "adventure" travel. People struggling to get up and down a mountain or down a river have less time to look down their noses at their surroundings, and the life and death possibilities of their circumstances may have something to do with this.

I'm currently listening to Bryson's "In a Sunburned Country", about guess where.

Umm, dont tell me, I know this.

I recall somebody complaing in the local papers about Bryson's views of my local town Adelaide, or possibly South Australia in general.
Adelaidians are very insecure and even the suggestion of critism will have many of them up in arms.

Interesting point - I haven't read the book either but I was told that parts of the Territory that he wrote about were factually incorrect. Certainly parts of the geography were wrong.

Well, I've just finished the Adelaide part, and while I can't speak to the accuracy, if the Canadian Prairies were ever to be described by outsiders in such glowing terms, we'd be delirious with joy. "Delightful", "lovely", "charming"...
Whereas, listen to this descripton of Edmonton: "Canada's parking lot." "Buildings like cheese graters" "You can tell a place is backwards when they have streets that are still called 'Trail'", and the infamous "boxes real buildings come in" comment I quoted above.