The Seaside

A poignant picture of life on the edge of England... Bunting snoops around where most of us don't bother to look -- Ysenda Maxtone Graham * Spectator * Eloquent and detailed... Britain's island story has never seemed so pertinent * Financial Times * [A] remarkable book, as bracing as a smack in the face by a stiff sea breeze, Madeleine Bunting tours the English coastline to discover what it reveals about the state of the nation today * Guardian * This superb tour of the English coastline is compelling, sometimes exhilarating but also profoundly sad... Bunting's wonderful travelogue offers us a powerful - and deeply dispiriting - microcosm of the whole nation * Observer * A fond exploration of our often conflicted relationship with the British beach resort. Its love for the institution is apparent and tender, but, rather like the country itself, Bunting also finds these locations to be divided and somewhat adrift. Her book makes for a fascinating barometer of the state of the nation right now, in the wake of austerity, Brexit and Covid -- Travis Elborough I enjoyed this very much. We all have happy seaside memories , and even though Bunting, too, finds the reason for our resorts' decline in in the fact that they were beaten to the sunburned pound and Kiss Me Quick Hat by the Costa This or That, I'd very much like her to be taken at her word and employed to revive their fortunes. Gauleiter Bunting has an authentic whiff of whelk about it' -- Jeremy Paxman