The Turning Tide: A Biography of the Irish Sea cover image

The Turning Tide: A Biography of the Irish Sea by Jon Gower

£10.99 GBP
Skip to product information
The Turning Tide: A Biography of the Irish Sea cover image

The Turning Tide: A Biography of the Irish Sea by Jon Gower

£10.99 GBP

Reliable shipping

Flexible returns

AN IMMERSIVE HISTORY OF A PIVOTAL STRETCH OF WATER

‘Fascinating, spellbinding, erudite and great fun.’ Roddy Doyle

‘Remarkable. Lively … Gower writes beautifully [and] the book is profoundly popular.’ Times Literary Supplement

The Turning Tide is a hymn to a sea passage of world-historical importance. Combining social and cultural history, nature-writing, travelogue and politics, Welshman Jon Gower charts a sea which has carried both Vikings and saints; invasion forces, royals and rebels; writers, musicians and fishermen.

The divided but interconnected waters of the Irish Sea – from the narrow North Channel through St George’s Channel to where the Celtic sea opens out into the wide Atlantic – have a turbulent history to match the violence of its storms. Jon Gower is a sympathetic and interested pilot, taking the reader to the great shipyards of Belfast and through the mass exodus of the starving during the Irish Famine in coffin boats bound for America. He follows the migrations of working men and women looking for work in England and tells the tales of more casual travellers: sometimes seasick, often homesick too.

The Irish Sea is also a place with an abundant natural history. The rarest sea bird in Europe visits its coasts in summer while the rarest goose wings in during winter.

The Turning Tide navigates waters teeming with life, filled with seals and salt-tanged stories and surveyed by seabirds. Lyrically written and fizzing with curiosity, this is a remarkable and far-reaching book.

Publisher: HarperNorth

Date Published: 29/08/2024

ISBN: 9780008532666

Number of pages: 336

Binding:

  • Paperback

Book genres:

Target audience:

You may also like...

You may also like...

Literary Cat's A-List

View all
Teach Your Cat Welsh by Anne Cakebread

Teach Your Cat Welsh by Anne Cakebread

Teach Your Cat Welsh by Anne Cakebread

£4.99 GBP
Welsh Folk Tales by Peter Stevenson

Welsh Folk Tales by Peter Stevenson

Welsh Folk Tales by Peter Stevenson

£14.99 GBP
Foragers Calendar by John Wright

Foragers Calendar by John Wright

Foragers Calendar by John Wright

£15.99 GBP
Teach Your Dog Welsh by Anne Cakebread

Teach Your Dog Welsh by Anne Cakebread

Teach Your Dog Welsh by Anne Cakebread

£4.99 GBP
The Grace of Kings (The Dandelion Dynasty) by Ken Liu

The Grace of Kings (The Dandelion Dynasty) by Ken Liu

The Grace of Kings (The Dandelion Dynasty) by Ken Liu

£10.99 GBP

Looking for a second-hand or antiquarian book?

Use the searchbox below to look-up our database of 10,000+ second-hand and antiquarian books.

Can't find the right book?

We've partnered with bookshop.org to provide nearly any book in print, delivered to your door.

Bookshop.org

Every book purchase supports Literary Cat Books.

Enjoy audiobooks?

Want a guilt-free way of enjoying audiobooks?

Our partner Libro.fm has you covered with a large library and priced competitively.

Libro.fm

Use promo code SWITCH for two free audiobooks.

Every subscription supports Literary Cat Books.

Do you like our bookshop?

We would love you to share your experience of our bookshop, or a great book, on Google!

Google Review

Help independent bookshops stand out on the map.