"Out on the estuary a slab of land had separated itself from the
horizon and was moving closer"
Shortlisted for the New Angle Prize 2019
In 2016 Tom Bolton set out on a mission to walk the long, winding
coastline of Essex -- from Purfleet on the Thames Estuary to the Suffolk
border.
Low Country records his probing, hallucinatory journeys along
crumbling sea-walls and through retail parks, past abandoned military
forts and plotlands. He uncovers an ancient battlefield upstream from a
decommissioned nuclear power station, visits England's most deprived
community and treks the remote and beautiful Dengie peninsula in search
of forgotten stories.
In the treacherous mudflats and coastal resorts of England's eastern
edge, an alternative vision begins to emerge, shaken by Brexit and the
rise of new, populist politics in Britain and America. In this low
country of vast horizons, where land and sea are in constant flux,
Bolton discovers a hidden history of invasion, resistance and radical
thinking. A timely new book from the celebrated author of London's Lost
Rivers and Vanished City, Low Country repositions the edgelands of
Essex at the political and imaginative heart of England.
