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Shadowlands

A Journey Through Lost Britain

Matthew Green

$39.99

Hardback

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English
Faber & Faber
31 May 2022

ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- How do you lose a village? Or an entire city? This thoroughly researched (and at times quite lyrical) book looks at eight sites in Britain that have faded away in the course of history, or been eroded away in the shift of geographical processes. Presented chronologically, it starts with the neolithic settlement of Skara Brae, searches for Trellech, a Welsh town of some substance in medieval times, examines towns that disappeared when their coastlines altered or their population succumbed to the plague, all the way up to the 20th century drowning of a Welsh town when the local river was dammed. Full of interesting details and scenarios, it shows just how impermanent settlements can be! Lindy

Drowned. Buried by sand. Decimated by plague. Plunged off a cliff.

This is the forgotten history of Britain's lost cities, ghost towns and vanished villages: our shadowlands.

'An exquisitely written, moving and elegiac exploration . . . a book to savour and cherish.' - Suzannah Lipscomb

From an Orkney settlement buried in sand five thousand years ago to a medieval city mouldering beneath the waves of the North Sea, Britain's landscape is scarred with the haunting and romantic remains; these shadowlands that were once filled with life are now just spectral echoes. Peering through the cracks of history, we find Dunwich, a medieval city plunged off a Suffolk cliff by sea storms; the lost city of Trellech unearthed by moles in the Welsh Marches; and the ghostly reservoir that is Capel Celyn, one of the few remaining solely Welsh-speaking villages, drowned by Liverpool City Council.

Historian Matthew Green tells the extraordinary stories of how these places met their fate, animating the people who lived, dreamed and died there and uncovering how their disappearances explain why Britain looks the way it does today. Travelling across Britain, Green transports the reader to these places as they teeter on the brink of oblivion, vividly capturing the sounds of the sea clawing away row upon row of houses, the taste of medieval wine, or the sights of puffin hunting on the tallest cliffs in the country. We experience them in their prime, look on at their destruction and revisit their lingering remains later as they are mourned by evictees and reimagined by artists, writers and mavericks.

By exploring the lost causes and dead ends of history - places lost to natural phenomena, war and plague, economic shifts and technological progress - the precariousness of our own towns and cities, of humanity, becomes clear. Shadowlands is a deeply evocative and dazzlingly original account of Britain's past.

By:  
Imprint:   Faber & Faber
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Edition:   Main
Dimensions:   Height: 234mm,  Width: 153mm,  Spine: 26mm
Weight:   579g
ISBN:   9780571338023
ISBN 10:   057133802X
Pages:   368
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Dr Matthew Green is an historian, writer, and broadcaster with a doctorate from Oxford University. He has appeared in documentaries on the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, and has written historical features for the Telegraph and Guardian. He is the co-founder of Unreal City Audio, which produces immersive tours of London as live events, audio downloads and apps. His first book was London: A Travel Guide Through Time.

Reviews for Shadowlands: A Journey Through Lost Britain

ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- How do you lose a village? Or an entire city? This thoroughly researched (and at times quite lyrical) book looks at eight sites in Britain that have faded away in the course of history, or been eroded away in the shift of geographical processes. Presented chronologically, it starts with the neolithic settlement of Skara Brae, searches for Trellech, a Welsh town of some substance in medieval times, examines towns that disappeared when their coastlines altered or their population succumbed to the plague, all the way up to the 20th century drowning of a Welsh town when the local river was dammed. Full of interesting details and scenarios, it shows just how impermanent settlements can be! Lindy


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