Lost to the Sea: A Journey Round the Edges of Britain and Ireland

(Hardback)

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'An immersive and lyrically personal journey through deep-time and modern tides' RAYNOR WINN

'Wondrous, elegant and haunting, Lost to the Sea is a fascinating alternative history of the fractured, flooded and eroded edges of Britain and Ireland' PHILIP HOARE

Medieval kingdoms. Notorious pirate towns. Drowned churches. Crocodile-infested swamps.

On a series of coastal walks, Lisa Woollett takes us on an illuminating journey, bringing to life the places where mythology and reality meet at the very edges of Britain and Ireland.

From Bronze Age settlements on the Isles of Scilly and submerged prehistoric forests in Wales, to a Victorian amusement park on the Isle of Wight and castles in the air off County Clare, Lisa draws together archaeology, meetings with locals and tales from folklore to reveal how the sea has forged, shaped and often overwhelmed these landscapes and communities.

Lost to the Sea is an exhilarating voyage around the ever-shifting shores of the British Isles, and a haunting ode to our profound relationship with the sea.

'A hugely enjoyable mosaic of history, myth and imagination' SARA WHEELER

'Beautifully written and researched . . . I was immediately tempted to head out in search of lost lands' WYL MENMUIR

Reviews

Filled with incident, insight and human curiosity . . . In elegant, haunting, always lively prose, Lost to the Sea proposes a vision of the great power of the elemental sea: the mysteries it has concealed, revealed, and will eventually take back to itself . . . a fascinating alternative history of the fractured, flooded and eroded edges of Britain and Ireland. -- PHILIP HOARE
A haunting evocation of vanishing places. Meticulously researched, Lost to the Sea delivers scene after scene of watery destruction at a host of crumbling, mythical or sunken sites - and a timely reminder of the transience of our coasts -- PHILIP MARSDEN

Author Bio

Lisa grew up on eroding cliffs on the Isle of Sheppey, with stories of local pubs and churches that had been lost to the sea. A photographer and beachcomber, she is the author of two award-winning books about the sea, and Rag and Bone won a Royal Society of Literature Giles St Aubyn Award for Non-Fiction. Since 2004 she has lived with her family on the south coast of Cornwall, in a house shared with buckets and boxes of beach finds.