Description
'A fascinating if stark warning about human hubris in ignoring our place in nature' New Scientist
Travel through drowned forests, vanished villages and sinking cities: the lost lands of our past, present - and future.
'A rich, haunting account of lost lands and vanished futures.' Professor David Farrier, author of Footprints: In Search of Future Fossils
From Stone Age lands that slipped beneath the English Channel to the rapid inundation of New Orleans, Gareth E. Rees explores stories of flooded places from the past - and those disappearing before our eyes.
The places lost to the eternally shifting boundaries between water and land continue to have a powerful emotional resonance today. Their uncertain features emerge to haunt us, briefly, when the moon draws back the tide to reveal a spire or a tree stump. And, imbued with myths and warnings from the past, these underwater worlds can also teach us important lessons about the unavoidability of change, the ebb and flow of Earth's natural cycles, and the folly of trying to control them.
Sunken Lands peels back the layers of silt, sea and mythology to reveal what our submerged past can tell us about our imminent future as rising sea levels transform our planet once more.
Praise for Sunken Lands
'An evocative and essential guide to disappeared places and difficult futures.' Will Wiles, author of Plume
'A beguiling exploration of lost worlds beneath the sea' Merlin Coverley, author of The Art of Wandering
'A reassuring perspective on the Anthropocene: the ebb and flow of civilisations, the inevitability of change and our capacity for renewal. Thoughtful and necessary writing.' Sonia Overall, author of Heavy Time
About the Author
Gareth E. Rees is the author of Unofficial Britain, longlisted for the Ondaatje Prize and one of the Sunday Times best books of the year 2020. He's also the author of Car Park Life, The Stone Tide and Marshland. His first short story collection, Terminal Zones, was published in 2022 and examines the strangeness of everyday life in a time of climate change. He lives in Hastings with his wife and children.
Reviews
'An evocative and essential guide to disappeared places and difficult futures.' Will Wiles, author of Plume
'A rich, haunting account of lost lands and vanished futures.' Professor David Farrier, author of Footprints: In Search of Future Fossils
'A beguiling exploration of lost worlds beneath the sea' Merlin Coverley, author of The Art of Wandering
'A reassuring perspective on the Anthropocene: the ebb and flow of civilisations, the inevitability of change and our capacity for renewal. Thoughtful and necessary writing.' Sonia Overall, author of Heavy Time
'
Sunken Lands is a wonderfully immersive exploration of our fascination with all things antediluvian. Gareth Rees dives deep to give us stories of watery landscapes as varied as the once wildlife-rich Lincolnshire Fens, hurricane-haunted New Orleans and the inundated relics of a drowned Roman resort beneath the Bay of Naples.' Edward Parnell, author of Ghostland
'Given the stark warnings contained within, it is admirable that this book is such a joy to read. Its opening precis of fluctuating seas mixes scientific poise with the relish of storytelling ... A musician as well as an author, Mr Rees always writes with imagination and lightly worn songfulness.' Country Life
'From a fabled drowned kingdom in Wales to echoes of Noah's ark in the Mahabharata, warnings of hubris in abusing nature resonate in Gareth E. Rees's world tour of flood myths' New Scientist Online
Book Information
ISBN 9781783967698
Author Gareth E. Rees
Format Hardback
Page Count 272
Imprint Elliott & Thompson Limited
Publisher Elliott & Thompson Limited
