Non-fiction
Edgelands
The wilderness is much closer than you think. Passed through, negotiated, unnamed, unacknowledged: the edgelands – those familiar yet ignored spaces which are neither city nor countryside – have become the great wild places on our doorsteps.
In the same way the Romantic writers taught us to look at hills, lakes and rivers, poets Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts write about mobile masts and gravel pits, business parks and landfill sites, taking the reader on a journey to marvel at these richly mysterious, forgotten regions in our midst.
Edgelands forms a critique of what we value as ‘wild’, and allows our allotments, railways, motorways, wasteland and water a presence in the world, and a strange beauty all of their own.
Reviews of Edgelands
Spectator
“eye-opening and hugely enjoyable book … overall this is an original, surprising and rather wonderful addition to our literature of place”
Sunday Telegraph
“in this marvelously quirky, fascinatingly detailed and beautifully written book the two authors fulfill their brief triumphantly”
Daily Telegraph
“a book that begs us to use our imaginations; to appreciate what we pass by every day but never really see”
Metro
“A haunting, often inspiring book… Edgelands covers an impressive range of politics, reminiscence, investigation and rumination.”
Scotland on Sunday
“a masterpiece of its kind… this is, quite simply, beautiful, but it is also typical of a beautifully conceived work of exploration, by two emissaries to the wilderness who do the wasteland proud.”
The Times