Annotations for “Bill Bryson on Manchester” 19.11.

20

Weather – In the sentence “The streets were shiny with rain” Bill Bryson contradicts himself
as rain is usually seen as a gloomy or bad thing but he uses it as a good thing to sort of
enhance the setting.

Restaurants – The restaurant makes people tip twice and then indirectly threatens them,
this is shown in the sentence “The offer was made in a tone that suggested if I were to see
the manager it would be with some of his boys in the back ally”. He also describes the
restaurant as a tatty and not very high-quality place, shown in “the décor was tatty and the
food barely ok”. This means the restaurant needs money, this is shown from my 2 earlier
points of 2 tips and also not looking great.

People - The people in Manchester in this extract are made out to be very relaxed and not
care much, this is seen in the restaurant “She gave me a bored, nothing-to-do-with-me
shrug”. It also seems that there are some very intimidating people, this is seen when Bill is
walking back to his hotel and “3 young men with close-cropped heads and abundantly
tattooed arms” and “The streets were awfully empty of respectable looking chaps like me”