The Britannias: An Archipelago's Tale [Hardcover]

Longlisted for the Ondaatje Prize and the Womens Prize for Non-Fiction [A] fascinating, often exhilarating survey.& Like one of those illusion paintings, Britain makes a different kind of sense when seen from its edges.& Albinia is an intrepid, imaginative guide, an adventurer for our more environmentally conscious age. She chooses to accentuate female perspectives in this account, but why shouldnt she? For centuries history and archaeology have defaulted to the masculine. [Alice] Albinias prose is impressive.& Albinia also demonstrates the travellers ability to become involved in the lives of the locals. Shes also skilled at uncovering these islands forgotten histories.& In the end, the main impression given by Sparkling.& Rooting [her] stories in rigorous research&Albinia realizes her quest with panache. She inverts long-held assumptions about the periphery versus the centre and creates a history that is richer and stranger the further it travels from seats of power. Despite the mainlands constant co-opting of island cultures over the centuries, her brackish motherlands still burst with poetic life. A dazzlingly brilliant book. Travelling by boat, swimming through kelp, riding on a fishing trawler, Alice Albinia takes us on an extraordinary journey around the British isles, revealing a liquid past where women ruled and mermaids sang and tracing the sea-changes of her own heart. US