Author:Rachel Lichtenstein
LONGLISTED FOR THE GORDON BURN PRIZE 2017
A hauntingly beautiful social history of the Thames Estuary, from the author of On Brick Lane
Out at the eastern edge of England, between land and ocean, you will find beautiful, haunted salt marshes, coastal shallows and wide-open skies: the Thames Estuary. The estuary is an ancient gateway to England, a passage for numberless travellers in and out of London. And for generations, the people of Kent and Essex have lived and worked on the Estuary, learning its waters, losing loved ones to its deeps. Their heritage is a proud but never an easy one. In the face of a world changing around them, they endure.
Rachel Lichtenstein spent five years exploring this unique community and recording its extraordinary chorus of voices, present and past. From mud larkers and fishermen to radio pirates and champion racers, from buried princesses to unexploded bombs, Estuary is a celebration of a haunting & profoundly British place.
Publisher's description. An immersive journey through the weird and haunting spaces of the Thames Estuary. Rachel Lichtenstein presents an extraordinary chorus of voices, from mudlarkers and fishermen to radio pirates and champion racers, capturing the incredibly diverse community of people who live and work in this ancient, wild and mesmerising place.
—— PenguinRachel Lichtenstein's electrifying exploration of the estuary
—— SpectatorThe Thames Estuary changes constantly. How do you make such a landscape comprehensible, and how do you render it vividly for the reader? Lichtenstein's outstanding book shows how it should be done.
—— Irish TimesImmersive, engrossing, evocative
—— The Lady'Very funny and much better than anything he ever wrote for me'
—— Griff Rhys JonesIf you have 18 euros in your pocket and at least two days left to live, then you should do one more thing to die without regrets, and that is to read this book.
—— La RepublicaThis lyrical saga...succeeds both as a revelatory tale of the artist as young man and a gripping portrait of the young Jewish state itself.
—— Miami HeraldDetailed and beautiful...as he writes about himself and his family, Oz is also writing part of the history of the Jews... We are in the hands here of a capable, practiced seducer.
—— Los Angeles TimesReaders keen to live a Good Life – and prepare for a Good Death – should dive head first into this fount of ancient but still modern wisdom.
—— Paul Cartledge, A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture Emeritus at the University of CambridgeIn this wise and delightful guide to the Grecian's teachings, Professor Edith Hall makes a highly convincing case for the ongoing relevance of ancient thinking
—— Bookseller[Hall] peppers her account with stories from her own life in a frank, discursive style
—— Dan Brotzel , Irish NewsHall navigates her way through the Aristotelian oeuvre with elegant ease
—— Christopher Bray , TabletA clear and frequently interesting survey of Aristotle’s thought
—— Sam Leith , Guardian[The] conversational tone…suits her subject – recreating the congenial atmosphere of an Athenian symposium
—— Sameer Rehim , Prospect[It is] mesmeric to hear Aristotelian wisdom freed from dusty, leather-bound volumes to be so emphatically applied to our every-day experience
—— Thomas Hennessy , PalantinateTold in a light and humorous way, Elkin’s cultural meander provides plenty of food for thought.
—— FranceA fascinating way to write about George Sand, Virginia Woolf and others, plus Elkin’s own artistic explorations of Paris, London, Venice and Tokyo. It makes us all want to be London wanderers.
—— Culture Whisper, Book of the YearElkin delivers a prococative yet light and humorous read, mingling her own memories with those of the female artists she portrays.
—— French Property NewsWith this book, Elkin hopes to track down the female equivalent – the flâneuse – to ‘see where a woman might fit into the cityscape’… It is a timely effort: in the Trump era of manspreading and male privilege, it is especially vital that we pay attention to notions of gendered space. Elkin’s prose is wry, insightful and saturated with detail
—— Sam Ford , Totally DublinDelightfully meandering.
—— Daily TelegraphElkin is a beguiling writer, and resolutely female, her sentences doing what Virginia Woolf wanted women's sentences to do, which is to "hold back the male flood"… Flâneuse is a riposte to all that macho stomping about… Flâneuse is so rich with shining trinkets and wise thoughts that not a single page disappoints or bores. It's that rare thing these days - a work of feminism which is enthused by literature and art and ideas rather than pop culture.
—— Ellis O'Hanlon , Irish IndependentElkin explores the history of people and places in astonishing detail. She writes with a passion and personality that creates the kind of familiarity which encourages us to believe that the women she studies were close friends of hers… Elkin's first person, colloquial yet witty style lets you into the recesses of her imagination and invites you to be her travel companion
—— Oxford StudentLauren Elkin is one of our most valuable critical thinkers – the Susan Sontag of her generation
—— Deborah LevyThe acclaimed historian of Russia sweeps the brittle high society of pre-Revolutionary St Petersburg, the terror-chilled jails of Stalin's purges and the secrets of 1990s Moscow archives into a tragic panorama.'
—— INDEPENDENT, TEN OF THE HOTTEST BOOKS THIS SUMMERA seamlessly written and moving portrait of the soviet Union in miniature from the Revolution to the age of Yeltsin.
—— MAIL ON SUNDAYWhat is striking is how he has thrown himself heart and soul into the romance and emotion of his drama. The novel throbs with sex, maternal feeling, revolutionary fervour and terror ... Terrific stuff
—— SUNDAY TIMES