Looking to Sea: What Coastal Art Tells Us About Modern Britain

'A remarkable and compelling book . . . I loved it'
Edmund de Waal

'Ambitious . . . a chronicle of British art, unfurled against the panoramic backdrop of 20th-century history'
Sunday Telegraph

In this remarkable modern history of Britain, the ebbs and flows of the twentieth century are explored through ten pivotal artworks. Each coastal piece, created between 1912 and 2015, opens a window onto the ideas that have shaped our society, from the impact of the world wars and colonialism to conceptions of class and nationhood.

Bold and imaginative, Looking to Sea is an exquisite work of cultural storytelling, and a fascinating portrait of our island nation.


'At once bold and delicate, far-reaching and fine-tuned'
Alexandra Harris

'Empathy and intelligence lift memoir into cultural history'
Iain Sinclair