Edgeland : a slow walk west / Sasha Swire.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Swire, Sasha, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Swire, Sasha--Travel--England--South West Coast Path.

Swire, Sasha.

Trails--England--South West Coast Path.

Trails.

South West Coast Path (England)--History.

South West Coast Path (England).

South West Coast Path (England)--Description and travel.

Physical Description:

274 pages : illustrations ; 20 cm

Place of Publication:

London : Abacus Books, an imprint of Little, Brown Book Group, 2024.

Summary:

"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"--Publisher's description.

Contents:

Home and away

Contagions

Devils and gods

Silver

Water

Barriers and breaks

In the beginning

Winds, waves and windows

Mystics and mayhem

Exploitation

Living and dying

Burial

Debris and deposits

Flying

Sacred space

Out of darkness

Water, light, oil

Saints

Magnet

Into the sacrifice zones

Entrances and exits

Lost lands.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9780349145198

0349145199

OCLC:

1444158542