The Frayed Atlantic Edge
“An argument for a different kind of history…The strength of Gange’s account is his generosity. His own wry persona never overshadows the voices of past and present inhabitants…His enthusiasm for snoozing in soggy sleeping bags is infectious. A dunking in the freezing sea leaves the author shivering but “ignited, elated”. Surfacing from his book, the reader is invigorated, too.” The Economist
“A glorious historian’s adventure…a thrillingly immersive model in the wake of which many of us are likely to be paddling for a long time.” Steve Mentz, Author of Ocean: Object Lessons
In July 2016, I set off to spend a year kayaking the Atlantic coastlines from Shetland to Cornwall. The idea was to travel slowly and close to the water, in touch with both the natural world and the histories of coastal communities. I spent as much time in coastal archives as in the boat, gathering stories and learning what Britain and Ireland look like with oceanic geographies at the centre.
The result is a book published by Harper Collins, which was joint winner of the Highland Book Prize, a New Statesman Book of the Year 2019 (nominated by Robert MacFarlane), BBC Countryfile’s Book of the Month (August 2019) and shortlisted for prizes including the Wainwright Prize for UK Nature Writing 2020
