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Edgeland
- Walking the South West Coast Path
- Narrated by: Sasha Swire
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
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Edgeland
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Summary
'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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What listeners say about Edgeland
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Jessica Beresford
- 28-07-24
Interesting ponderings but not a walkers diary
The author seems to take one thing from an area and then write about her ponderings towards the subject. Some of which was interesting and I did learn about some of the areas. However, if you are looking for more of a description of the path, the journey and what to expect, as I was, this book isn’t the one.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Sceptical Sorcerer
- 17-01-24
Excellent Traval-Inspured Writing
A highly thought-provoking piece of lyrical prose. A pleasing and sobering blend of personal and national history. Excellent writing.
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- George Belsham
- 30-01-24
Too much rambling, not enough of rambling!
I had high expectations of a narrative walk along the coast of England, much like Simon Armitage's 'Walking Home'.
I was very disappointed, the author seems to continually go off on long, dull tangents, that have little bearing on the walk, rather than focusing on the walk and the history or social impact of where they are walking.
What is also tiresome is the frequent nods to 'culture wars' tropes that are frankly dull and very tempting to skip over as the author goes on another rant.
I have had this book for over 3 months and have rarely looked forward to listening to it on my walks in winter and decided to return it.
If you want a travel book of someone walking along one of the most scenic parks of the UK with descriptions of what's it like, the smells, sounds, and feel, with some context to where they are walking this is not the book for you :(
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