Billy Connolly's Tracks Across America: The travel memoir from bestselling author and the nation's favourite comedian Billy Connolly

Written by Billy Connolly

Narrated by David Monteath

An epic trip across America with much-loved national treasure and comedy legend, Billy Connolly

Billy Connolly has spent much of his life in the United States, where he now lives. It's a country he knows and loves a great deal, but even someone as well-travelled as Billy can always discover new things about such a vast nation. So he's off on the move again, this time via the tracks of the great railroads that helped to build the country.

Billy's adventure takes him on an incredible trip through the backyard of America, tracing the routes taken by the first European settlers westwards from Chicago to California, then back down south and eastwards through Arizona, Texas, Alabama and finally New York, over 6,000 miles and 26 states later.

It's a journey through a country you don't get to see from 30,000 feet in the air - the real America of friendly people with fascinating tales to tell which not only give us an insight into their lives, but also into the life of their great homeland. And it's a journey that couldn't be shared with a more entertaining companion.

Hop aboard and join Billy on a trip you'll never forget.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
• Release date: Mar 31, 2016
• ISBN: 9781405535304

Billy Connolly

Sir William Connolly, CBE is a much-loved Scottish comedian, musician, artist, presenter and actor. He is the recipient of a BAFTA Lifetime Achievement Award and is regularly voted the nation's favourite stand-up comedian. His has written three books, Tall Tales & Wee Stories, Windswept & Interesting and Rambling Man, all of which were No.1 bestsellers. In 2012, he launched his debut fine art collection Born On A Rainy Day with Castle Fine Art. A deluxe edition of select artworks was published in 2023 under the same name. Billy was born and raised in Glasgow and now lives in America.

[pdcread · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Billy Connolly has spent over half his life in America, but apart from seeing the inside of a few airports and a fair number of cities, he hasn’t seen much of the country. In this journey, he is letting the train take the strain. This mammoth journey from Chicago to New York, via Seattle, south the California and heads east through Texas is really the long way round; but it is a journey aiming to discover more of its backyard and people. He meets and greets the real people of America, visits a tent city caring for homeless people, tastes the Juicy Lucy, meets some genuine hobos, goes to a cannabis farm and learns the secrets behind a murder scene.

Connolly is an irrepressible wanderer, and this book is no different to his others. Not only is he quite philosophical now, he is a great people person too, talking and befriending the people he meets along his route is second nature to him. It is written in his whimsical chatty style and makes for fairly easy reading. Good companion to the TV series, which I am now going to watch.

[thewasp_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Entertaining recount of train journey from Chicago to New york via the west coast with an introduction to some interesting towns and people with unusual hobbies. As a non American there was a missed opportunity for more photos of the countryside through which they travelled. Lots of photos of Billy though.

[cariola_6 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Scottish actor-comedian Billy Connolly takes a trip across America on The Sunset Express. He makes quick work of big cities like Chicago, Minneapolis, and Baltimore but lingers in in the more out-of-the-way, quirky locations, relishing his time with the unusual people and places that he runs across. One example: Rayne, Louisiana, the Frog Capital of the World. They used to supply frog legs for worldwide consumption; now the industry supplies specimens for biology classes. Connolly was made an honorary citizen, given the keys to Rayne, judges the Frog Queen competition (based on the most originally and best dressed frog), and participates in a frog jumping race. Whether talking to the woman who held the key to the nuclear red button in the 1960s, visiting a pop art museum where the creations appear on toilet seats, or getting fitted for custom design cowboy boots, the personable Connolly manages to to wheedle great personal stories and local histories out of his companions. A light and entertaining read.