Novelist, traveller, scriptwriter, photographer: Jeremy Page is a man with a broad view of wide horizons. But on approaching middle age, he experienced a calling to return to the place which he - and his ancestors - had called home. Like the migratory eel, retracing a route back to somewhere it had once fought to leave, he decided to take a long, slow journey through a landscape both familiar but also separated by time and distance from his current life. Starting in the tiny Lincolnshire fen-village of New York, Page sets off with an eccentric companion and a dog, following a similar path to his forebears - through fenland, along coastlines, into cities and across broads. His destination: another village with an improbable stateside name - California - on the East Norfolk coast. Whilst never entirely clear what he is searching for, he hopes answers might emerge amongst the not-quite-visible-parts of the landscape and its people. With great humour and beautiful observation, he paints a poignant, joyous portrait of what it means to stop and contemplate who we are, where we came from, and where we might be heading. Concrete answers are not what he he finds, but glimmers of the nearly-hidden provide tantalising clues that both he and his readers will benefit from having experienced long after the journey ends.
Part memoir, part travelogue, with the feel of nature writing this book is for anyone interested in the relationship between place, person and past. The cinematic scope of the landscape is equally matched by the minutiae of detail picked up in conversation and overheard dialogue. Although not overtly political, the journey by a left-leaning writer who resides in London through the Brexit heartland raises timely issues about identity in England today, as well as the England of the author's forbears. This is a 'local' book with global appeal. Rooted in the mud of East Anglia, it's branches reach out to all people - it's themes and stories talk to us all. Perfect for fans of Raynor Winn's The Salt Path, Richard Mabey, Melissa Harrison, Robert MacFarlane, Kathleen Jamie, Iain Sinclair and Little Toller titles.About the AuthorJeremy Page's novels are Salt, The Wake and The Collector of Lost Things. He has worked as a script editor for the last twenty years, working on dramas for the BBC, Channel 4, Film Four and Netflix. He has taught on the UEA undergraduate and MA Creative Writing courses, as well as City University, Arvon, and the London Film School.
Book InformationISBN 9780992946081
Author Jeremy PageFormat Paperback
Imprint PropolisPublisher Propolis