'Not just a changed country but a changed narrator ...'

Tim Albert’s account of his two Greyhound bus odysseys across America, 50 years apart, is a warm, funny and observant take on the state of the States. The distance in time marks not just a changed country but a changed narrator.

Self-deprecating and wry, Tim’s recreation of a trip his ‘whippersnapper self’ took in 1969 is not just a travelogue, but a quest to find out if this ‘superannuated old timer’ (his words!) has still got what it takes to navigate the often-maligned bus service. His battles with his older body and the frustrations and mores of modern technology are darkly funny: “The silent man next to me is still turned to the window, at one with his mobile phone. Others around are in the same foetal position: I have no choice but to leave them to their own devices. Literally.”

Crossing the country ...