- Publisher: Abacus
- Year: 2023
- Format: Hardback
- Pages: 288pp
- Illustrated: Yes
- Dimensions: 240x162mm
- Condition: New
- Weight: 0.5kg
- ISBN: 9781408717158
- Product code: 541375
Edgeland
A Slow Walk West
Sasha Swire New Hardback Illustrated
Postscript summary
Sasha Swire walks the length of the West Country from Minehead in Somerset to Land’s End in her native Cornwall. Passing through Porlock, Tintagel and St Michael’s Mount, and inspired by the region’s dramatic coastline, rich flora and fauna, and Celtic heritage, she reflects on the significance of such edgelands, between land and sea, to the human spirit.
Product information
Full publisher description
From the bestselling author of Diary of an MP's Wife comes a beautiful discovery of Britain's great coastal path
'A real achievement - unexpectedly moving with every beat and turn of its taut, precise prose' Rory Stewart
'Beautifully written... a contemplative, Paul Theroux-like exploration of our most stunning coastline' Daily Telegraph
'Swire ingeniously evokes the landscapes, famous people who lived here and, especially, the flora and fauna' Guardian
In Edgeland, the political diarist Sasha Swire escapes the confines of Westminster to walk the northern stretch of the South West Coast Path. Starting at Minehead in Somerset, she follows the well-trodden path to Land's End in Cornwall, walking it in sections over a decade-long period, returning each year like a migratory bird.
The result is an immersive, beguiling and literary exploration of one of the most enigmatic, beautiful and popular coastlines on earth. It is also a contemplative and very personal response to a story about our English shore from pre-Celtic times to the present day; of the upheaval of rocks; of astonishing botany; of pilgrimage and customs; of the exploitation of resources and of dangers to come.
Swire identifies how important edges are to us as she walks, not only in how we see our world but in our attitude to it. She observes that the outside limits, the borders, the line where two surfaces of a solid meet actively, encourage not only flora and fauna but people to gather, create, generate resistance and build new ways of living and working.
She discovers that the path is not only a walk through Britain's windswept and wave-battered western fringes but a tale about how we and nature have, through extraordinary resilience and relentless spirit, learnt to tame the various forces that are stacked against us. That we live at the edge of the possible.
'A real achievement - unexpectedly moving with every beat and turn of its taut, precise prose' Rory Stewart
'Beautifully written... a contemplative, Paul Theroux-like exploration of our most stunning coastline' Daily Telegraph
'Swire ingeniously evokes the landscapes, famous people who lived here and, especially, the flora and fauna' Guardian
In Edgeland, the political diarist Sasha Swire escapes the confines of Westminster to walk the northern stretch of the South West Coast Path. Starting at Minehead in Somerset, she follows the well-trodden path to Land's End in Cornwall, walking it in sections over a decade-long period, returning each year like a migratory bird.
The result is an immersive, beguiling and literary exploration of one of the most enigmatic, beautiful and popular coastlines on earth. It is also a contemplative and very personal response to a story about our English shore from pre-Celtic times to the present day; of the upheaval of rocks; of astonishing botany; of pilgrimage and customs; of the exploitation of resources and of dangers to come.
Swire identifies how important edges are to us as she walks, not only in how we see our world but in our attitude to it. She observes that the outside limits, the borders, the line where two surfaces of a solid meet actively, encourage not only flora and fauna but people to gather, create, generate resistance and build new ways of living and working.
She discovers that the path is not only a walk through Britain's windswept and wave-battered western fringes but a tale about how we and nature have, through extraordinary resilience and relentless spirit, learnt to tame the various forces that are stacked against us. That we live at the edge of the possible.
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541375
Edgeland
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/Non-Fiction/Categories/British Isles
/Non-Fiction/Categories/Science & Nature
/Non-Fiction/Categories/Science & Nature/Nature & The Natural World
/Non-Fiction/Highlights/Journey Around Britain
/Non-Fiction/Highlights/Books About Cornwall
/Campaigns/Shaped by the Sea
/Email Landing Pages/Books of the Week
/Campaigns/Summer at Postscript/Categories/British Wildlife & Landscapes
<p>Sasha Swire walks the length of the West Country from Minehead in Somerset to Land’s End in her native Cornwall. Passing through Porlock, Tintagel and St Michael’s Mount, and inspired by the region’s dramatic coastline, rich flora and fauna, and Celtic heritage, she reflects on the significance of such edgelands, between land and sea, to the human spirit.</p>
Hardback
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rrp_info:£22.00
productId:170643
bic_code:WSZC, WTL
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Sasha Swire
General
240x162mm
Abacus
No
Hardback
