Book description
From the bestselling author of 'The Lighthouse Stevensons', a gripping
history of the drama and danger of wrecking since the 18th-century - and
the often grisly ingenuity of British wreckers, scavengers of the sea.
A fine wreck has always represented sport, pleasure, treasure, and in
many cases, the difference between living well and just getting by. The
Cornish were supposedly so ferocious that notices of shipwrecks were
given out during morning service by the minister, whilst the
congregation concocted elaborate theological justifications for drowning
the survivors. Treeless islanders relied on the harvest of storms to
furnish themselves with rafters, boat hulls, fence-posts and floors. In
other places, false lights were set up with grisly ingenuity along the
coast to lure boats to destruction.
With romance, insight and dry wit, Bella Bathurst traces the history of
wrecking, looting and salvaging in the British Isles since the
18th-century and leading up to the present day. 'For a fully laden
general cargo to run to ground in an accessible position is more or less
like having Selfridges crash-land in your back garden,' she writes. 'A
Selfridges with the prices removed'. Far from being a black-and-white
crime, wrecking is often seen as opaque by its practitioners - the
divisions between theft and recovery are small. No successful legal
prosecution has ever been brought; the RNLI was founded by wreckers -
even today lifeboat crews maintain the right to claim salvage.
In settings ranging from the eerily perambulatory Goodwin Sands to the
wreck-strewn waters off the coast of Durham, these murky tales of
resourcefulness and quick-witted opportunism open a beguiling vista of
life at the rough edges of our land and legality. 'Bathhurst's
descriptions are precise and graphic, but also poignant … Striking and
memorable.' Peter Ackroyd, The Times
'[Bathurst] is wry, perceptive, laconic, occasionally downright funny
and uncannily skilled at recreating atmosphere…a pleasure to read.'
Daily Telegraph
'Entertaining and gossipy…Bathurst pens vivid accounts of hazardous
stretches of our coastline and the depredations of the inhabitants.'
Sunday Telegraph
'A luminious tale of shifting sands and treacherous seas,' Monica Ali, Guardian
'She has a dazzling gift for descriptive writing.' Adam Nicolson, Independent
'Bathhurst has opened a magic casement onto a lost world on the edge of
living memory.' Independent on Sunday Bella Bathurst is a freelance
journalist whose portfolio includes work for the Observer, Telegraph,
Sunday Telegraph, Independent on Sunday, Guardian, Scotsman and Scotland
on Sunday. Her first book, The Lighthouse Stevensons: The Extraordinary
Story of the Building of the Scottish Lighthouses by the Ancestors of
Robert Louis Stevenson, was widely acclaimed. She published her first
novel 'Special' was published in 2003.
