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  • The Road to Little Dribbling

  • More Notes From a Small Island
  • By: Bill Bryson
  • Narrated by: Nathan Osgood
  • Length: 13 hrs and 56 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (205 ratings)

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The Road to Little Dribbling

By: Bill Bryson
Narrated by: Nathan Osgood
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Publisher's Summary

Twenty years ago Bill Bryson went on a trip around Britain to celebrate the green and kindly island that had become his adopted country. The hilarious book that resulted, Notes from a Small Island, was taken to the nation’s heart and became the best-selling travel book ever and was voted in a BBC poll the book that best represents Britain.

Now, to mark the 20th anniversary of that modern classic, Bryson makes a brand-new journey around Britain to see what has changed. Following (but not too closely) a route he dubs the Bryson Line, from Bognor Regis to Cape Wrath, by way of places that many people never get to at all, Bryson sets out to rediscover the wondrously beautiful, magnificently eccentric, endearingly unique country that he thought he knew but doesn’t altogether recognize any more.

Yet, despite Britain’s occasional failings and more or less eternal bewilderments, Bill Bryson is still pleased to call our rainy island home. And not just because of the cream teas, a noble history, and an extra day off at Christmas.

Once again, with his matchless homing instinct for the funniest and quirkiest, his unerring eye for the idiotic, the endearing, the ridiculous and the scandalous, Bryson gives us an acute and perceptive insight into all that is best and worst about Britain today.

Download includes accompanying PDF map of the Bryson Line. Music written and performed by Richard Digance, inspired by The Road to Little Dribbling.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.

©2015 Bill Bryson (P)2015 Recording and music (p) Transworld Audiobooks

What listeners say about The Road to Little Dribbling

Average Customer Ratings
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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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  • Jan
  • 22-10-2015

Typical Bryson

U get what u expect from a Bill Bryson book and that is a good thing. It's not quite as sharp or funny as some of his others but still a very enjoyable 12 hours or so

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent as usual.

He hasn't written a bad word yet. Same here. As the review requires twenty words, I am now just filling.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great story - pity about the reader.

Bryson's written another great book but I find the reader very difficult to listen to - which in the end put in off listening to it. I want William Roberts as a reader for Bryson back.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Not bad. Narration was distracting though.

Decent book. Not one of his best by any means but there was some interesting stuff in there.

A bit miffed that out of the almost 14 hours running time he talked about Scotland for less than 1 hour, despite it being (geographically speaking) almost 40% of the journey. Seems pretty disproportionate.

My other main criticism is that the narration was average at best. The attempts at English accents (or, more accurately, accent since they all sounded identical) were very grating. The Scottish one was terrible too, though mercifully not used very much.

Might work for an American audience I guess but I'm presuming most of the readership would be British. Not sure why, with a book of this nature, they would get a guy to narrate who can't do any British accents! Also, as an aside, I think we're all pretty familiar with Bryson's distinctive voice from his TV shows and other appearances, not sure why he wouldn't have just gone to the effort to narrate this himself.

Anyway, might have been a little harsh here. It's a solid book. Just not up to the standard of his previous offerings.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent in Every Way

I very much enjoyed this book. The style of Bryson's more critical comments is "necessary brutality", and I enjoyed along with him the fantasy of wreaking a fitting and violent revenge on the irritating.

I enjoyed this return to Britain more for the fact that many of the places he discusses I am quite familiar with.

I invite Bill to return to Australia to do a similar job on our much changed nation.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Infortainment

So there's a word that will have Bill's toes curling ... With the expected humour of this author, this listen gives an honest account of Bill's observations. It had me chortling at his observations, nodding sagely in agreement at some of his despairings and every now and then, thinking he was really getting a bit tetchy in his old age. Quite philosophical and thought provoking in many parts. There'll be some locations I'll be sure to include on Bill's recommendation during our first visit to the UK this Christmas. However, I now wonder what my husband and I will be getting ourselves into as we plan to make a journey to Blackpool to catch up with friends from Oz now stationed there with the Air Force ... Fingers crossed we'll get out of there intact. I hope Bill revisits Australia!

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

I’m on a plane soon

I’m a Bryson fan, and let’s face it, who isn’t? The follow up to Notes from a Small Island is engaging, informative, funny and personal.
The deep love for Byrons’ adopted country shines through as does his love of the English countryside.
A plane to England has my name on it - no not Virgin!
Whilst I enjoy Bryson’s narration it could be reasonably said that Nathan Osgood’s narration is Bryson with better international accents.
I loved every minute of this 5 star audio book and was disappointed when it finished.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Missing Bill himself, and William Roberts

I enjoyed the book, as I have all of Mr Bryson's, but was sad about the narration. I just feel Mr Osgood does not have the lightness of touch and self deprecation of those books read by Nr Roberts, or by the author himself. The text is up to the usual standard, and the criticisms, observations, and praises are well articulated, but the voice is querulous at times and too heavy handed, if a voice can be that.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant!

Insightful and says it the way it is. Worth every penny and more. Now onto his next book.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Only Bill Bryson should be narrating his books

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Maybe

What other book might you compare The Road to Little Dribbling to, and why?

All other BB books

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

It wasn't Bill, and I just can't listen to his books narrated by someone else

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

no

Any additional comments?

Bring back Bill!

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  • Anonymous User
  • 01-05-2022

Loved the book

Very entertaining and informative. Bill Bryson has the nack of saying things without being too crude. Narrator was excellent.

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  • Bodie9
  • 03-11-2019

Love Bill Bryson!

I have read or listened to almost every Bill Bryson book written. (and I will read The Body: A Guide For Occupants soon) I particularly enjoy his audiobbooks - he brings them to life as no other narrator could.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Nitvss
  • 14-11-2017

Vintage Bill Bryson!

For those who thought Notes from a Small Island was theor favorite Bryson, you should know he has done a sequel which is even better. Meet the old man Bryson. More caustic wit which couldn't have mature better

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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Coleswa
  • 13-01-2016

The narrator is brilliant. Loved it!

I am a Bryson fan girl so of course I loved the book but the narrator, Nathan Osgood, made it so much better! I heard and re-heard some parts because they were so impeccable.

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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  • Jane F. Clifton
  • 10-12-2015

In search of the adjective in the sentence

What disappointed you about The Road to Little Dribbling?

Really annoying read.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

Chosen a reader who got the style.

How could the performance have been better?

This reader thought he was reading a thriller not a laconic, witty travelogue. It sounded as though he had been handed the book 30 secs before the read - the sentences took him by surprise or, maybe, he just has no idea of the structure of a sentence. So often the emphasis would be on the noun rather than the adjective - greenBELT, roundABOUT. The only saving grace was that he had swotted up on how to pronounce the place names correctly. But the style of the book was, clearly, a complete mystery to him.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from The Road to Little Dribbling?

No editing, just a producer.

Any additional comments?

Has Bill Bryson heard this audio book?

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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  • Peter Morton
  • 17-11-2015

Grave Disappointment

What would have made The Road to Little Dribbling better?

A strong infusion of Bryson's wit and eye for oddity -- from 15 years back.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Certainly - anything by Bryson is worth looking at.

Any additional comments?

I bow to nobody in my admiration for Bryson. I've read all his books as they came out and there are comic scenes in many of them that made me laugh out loud - a rare thing. To my mind, his 'A Short History of Nearly Everything' is a book I'd like to see put in the hands of every intelligent 14 year old who is interested in how the world got to be the way it is and humans' place in it. Bryson has, or had, a huge gift for making a popular synthesis of history and science. This book is serious disappointment. The witty persona he has cultivated through his career seems to be dissolving in all round grouchiness and moaning about Britain, his adopted homeland. His constant bitching about prices of sandwiches etc does not amuse, coming from someone who must (deservedly) be a rich man. Similarly, his pose of ingenuousness, attractive in earlier books, rings hollow here. Among other things, I simply don't believe Bryson has never heard of the painter Leighton, as he claims! Large chunks of the book, especially the biographical vignettes, have the air of being paraphrased from Wikipedia. Also his regular laments about not being able to recall things that happened 2 weeks ago are disconcerting. I suppose Bryson has reached the stage where his publishers are happy to slap anything he writes between covers and push it out. What a shame. The narrator, though, does a very sound job in the circumstances.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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  • K Bright
  • 13-10-2015

Sarcasm and base humour.

This is the first time ever, that Mr Bryson has disappointed me. Sure the book is an easy read/listen. I found his views rather distasteful at times. Using the word 'vegetable' when referring to a person he'd like to assault was rather poor. His views of the changing culture in Britain were more sarcasm than humour. Far too many sentences related to his behaviour and attitude towards others than necessary. Base and rather vulgar language was unnecessary. After 19 chapters I gave up. About to re-listen to a Walk in the Woods to renew my faith.

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  • The Reluctant Hermit
  • 29-10-2015

I think Bill would rather have stayed at home.

I usually love Bill Bryson's books but was disappointed with this one.It wasn't helped by the narrator who would have been ideal for a crime novel but did not convey the usual cheery,cheeky whimsy we expect from BB. By his tone I felt that he would much rather have stayed at home with his family and not been forced by the need of gathering material to go trailing about the country.He goes on too much about London which was boring and I don't know why he bothered going to Scotland at all. He spent most of the time in a sleeper (well at least he was safe from being "nutted" by the violent population in a sleeper) and it just felt like he couldn't really be bothered.Anyone who doesn't like a tunnocks tea cake is rather odd in my humble, Scottish non violent view.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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  • Rachel Redford
  • 27-10-2015

Curl Up and Dye in Grimsby!

I must get a criticism out of the way first - the title, Little Dribbling. Perhaps Bryson's editor thought it was a good title or perhaps Bryson himself did - but it's not. It's not funny but IS mocking which gives an entirely wrong impression of the book - enough to put any half-serious reader off because the book IS funny and ISN'T mocking. It may be justifiably critical in many places, but it's not mocking. Overall it's a deeply affectionate view of England, a place Bryson loves and cares deeply about.

Some readers may find they like the Bill Bryson of Notes on a Small Island better than the Bryson of Little Dribbling. They may find him carping and critical and constantly going on about how stupid people can be, how ugly town centres are, how everything costs too much and how we're surrounded by crass grammatical errors. But a lot has happened since Notes on a Small Island, not least Bryson is 20 years older - his memory is longer and can therefore judge how things have changed, and yes, he's less tolerant. And Britain has changed. Bryson tells the truth, even if it's unpalatable.

So what you get is Britain NOW with its crazy scheme for HS2 to rip through the countryside at unimaginable financial cost to make the journey to Birmingham 20 minutes faster; praise for the hugely improved London Underground and a very funny account (not so funny if you consider the questions he was asked) of his written test for his British citizenship taken in Eastleigh, an occasion for poor Eastleigh to get the Bryson treatment with its interchangeable coffee shops, charity shops and closed-down shops.

There's plenty that Bryson loves - our countryside is the best anywhere, the Lake District (apart from the cars) is idyllic, no landscape in the world is 'more lovely to behold'. He's drawn to the quirky and odd which makes listening constantly interesting and often funny - like the Grimsby hairdressers in the title of this review. Why should we British be more frightened of cows rather than bulls? (Americans wouldn't even BE in a field with either, so it doesn't apply to them). He treats us to a multitude of potted biographies of people he had never heard of - Lord Leighton with his pictures of naked girls; Billy Butlin; the unfortunate Member of Parliament Huskisson, the first person to be killed by a train....

So if you want to be thoroughly entertained, laugh out loud, go to parts of Britain you may never have visited, come on board. The narrator is American which underlines the fact that even though Bryson is a British citizen and well-embedded in British society, he's still able to observe in ways we can't.



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26 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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  • Amazon Customer
  • 11-10-2015

funny, perceptive and grumpy

I did love it - funny and interesting, but isn't he getting grumpy? I thought of how I embarrassed myself on a train by laughing often at "Neither Here Nor There", many years ago. This is as entertaining. I was able to compare my perceptions of many places with Bill Bryson's, as well as the pros and cons of attitudes in the UK and USA. I enjoyed listening on a tablet whilst flipping to follow his progress on a map.
" The Bryson line" notion was rather pretentious and irrelevant.
He slated aspects of our ways, interspersed with restating often how world beating a view or concept is. He'd receive better responses on his travels by being less snippy. But it's a "must read" for Bryson fans.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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  • FountainPen
  • 14-10-2015

Narration not great

I think this would be better as a physical book as the narrator's clunky pronunciation of British place names throws it off course sometimes. I do enjoy Bryson's books but he can be a bit of a grumpy old man. I'm not sure this added a great deal to his previous book on Britain and it is a bit Southern centric considering it's supposedly based on the premise of travelling from South to North along a specific line Bryson invented.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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  • David
  • 24-10-2015

Another great book. Let down by the narrator

What did you like most about The Road to Little Dribbling?

Another great romp through our small island. Entertaining as ever and hopefully have more travel books from the master of wit and story telling.

What did you like best about this story?

The wit and frankness of Bill is as amusing as ever. Saying things we all think.

What didn’t you like about Nathan Osgood’s performance?

Good narrator but really enjoyed William Roberts with the previous books, who is the master narrator of the previous travel books. Why didn't he read this?

Any additional comments?

Bring back William Roberts!

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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  • Bammosan
  • 13-10-2015

Sweet and Sourer.

What did you like best about The Road to Little Dribbling? What did you like least?

Best when he intereacts with people. Worst - sorry naration.

Would you be willing to try another book from Bill Bryson? Why or why not?

Always, admire and enjoy his work, just this time has a slightly bitter edge to it. Being a Yorkshireman myself, I can see he has taken on some of the Yorkshire characteristics.

Would you be willing to try another one of Nathan Osgood’s performances?

No, made Bill Bryson sound sour, I don't understand why Bill Bryson uses other narators, when he does it himself you become more empathetic to his point of view. Seems to have a random approach to having himself read his books or use someone else.

If this book were a film would you go see it?

No.

Any additional comments?

Will listen again just to make sure I am not being unfair in assesment.

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13 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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  • oliver
  • 26-10-2015

Bill Bryson is Victor Meldrew

I am sure that the world is no better off after this book. It's disappointing that Bryson thinks that this bile is publishable. Boringly negative.

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    2 out of 5 stars
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  • Peter Mill
  • 25-02-2016

Too grumpy

Bill Bryson has become a grumpy old man, and sadly far too much of this book is spent moaning about how rubbish everything is nowadays, and how much better it used to be.
When he's positive about things it's so much more pleasant to listen to. Grumpy is wearing.
Also he spends 80% of the book in the south of England and knocks off Wales and Scotland as an afterthought. Not his best.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Colin
  • 11-11-2015

Another winner from Bryson

There are few authors so consistently reliable as Bill Bryson, and this, his latest travel book, is another winner. As always he writes with such warmth and clarity it's as if you're right there with him as he experiences surly service, baffling train timetables and indifferent hotel staff, intersperced with magnificent views and undiscovered finds.

A gem of a book

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  • Kaggy
  • 09-11-2016

Rambling and grumbling but charming as ever

I confess that I love Bill Bryson. He may be grumpy, and occasionally even unkind, but generally his comments are just and well argued. Most noticeable in this book is the fact he has got a bit older and crankier and his nit-picking about the price of tea, cake and entrance to National Treasures is hilarious. Like in all his other books there are some really funny encounters but one of the things I found most striking is when he describes a perilous situation involving a toddler. It was nail biting but also very moving and is a great example of why he is such an engaging and skilful writer. I may be a long term inhabitant of the UK but Bill has managed to tell me about things I never knew existed and when he does describe things I do know I can’t help recognising and agreeing with his observations.

I enjoyed the narrator and to me he sounded reassuringly like the author, so was a very good choice.

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