`I could have been American; after all I was nearly born there. So I wanted to find out what is it that makes the United States of America so unique, so diverse, so very American... The beauty. The grandeur. The extraordinary contradictions. But enough about Stephen. What of America, the thrillingly varied colossus of a country that Stephen went to explore? What is the reali `I could have been American; after all I was nearly born there. So I wanted to find out what is it that makes the United States of America so unique, so diverse, so very American... The beauty. The grandeur. The extraordinary contradictions. But enough about Stephen. What of America, the thrillingly varied colossus of a country that Stephen went to explore? What is the reality beneath the stereotypes of gun-toting and Bible-bashing? In his chariot of Englishness - a black London cab - Stephen starts his epic journey on the east coast and zig-zags across America, stopping in every state from Maine to Hawaii. En route he discovers the south Side of Chicago with blues legend Buddy Guy, marches with Zulus in New Orleans Mardi Gras, and drums with the Sious Nation in South Dakota; joins a Georgia family for Thanksgiving, `picks with Bluegrass hillbillies, and finds himself in a Tennessee garden full of dead bodies. Whether in a club for failed gangsters (yes, those are real bullet holes) or celebrating Halloween in Salem (is there anywhere better?), Stephen is welcomed by the people of America - mayors, sheriffs, newspaper editors, park rangers, teachers and hobos. This is the best of the big country, the best of the big brain and the best book about America by Stephen Fry youll ever read. What more need be said?