Longlisted for the 2014 Thwaites Wainwright Prize
Welcome to a large small island.
The outline of the British Isles is instantly recognisable. But jostling within that familiar profile are countless vying maps of the country. Some of these maps are founded on rock, or on the natural features of the land. Far more are built on dreams - on human activity, effort, and aspiration.
From investigations of caves and megaliths to canals and airspace, Joanne Parker reveals a country with countless competing centres and ceaselessly shifting borders - a land where one person's sleepy, unexceptional province will always be the busy heart of another's map.
Britannia Obscura opens our eyes to the infinitely layered, rich and surprising landscape of Britain.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
This prodigious book takes us on a fascinating excursion around a Britain obscure to most of us * Daily Mail * Original and engaging. -- Gillian Tindall * Literary Review * An affectionate, alternative exploration to make readers feel more familiar with Britain. * Great Outdoors * Parker's tour is conducted with a light touch in prose which makes learning from her a pleasure. She makes delightful connections between eras and activities, and is conscious of the value of the unknown and uncertain in our lives... At twice the length this book would have been no less enjoyable. -- Horatio Clare * Daily Telegraph * [Joanne Parker's] book is an eye-opener. -- Andrew McNeillie * Country Life * Ultimately, Britannia Obscura is a book that aims to make its readers more familiar with Britain but also excited about the endless possibilities for surprise that lie just around familiar corners. -- Bethan Mason * Pembrokeshire Herald * Britannia Obscura's alternative topographies, ancient and modern, speak to our yearning for meaning and pattern. Parker reconnects these fascinating networks and lays them bare - ready for us to impose new mythologies on them in turn * Times Higher Education * This alternative exploration of the country is an accessible and fascinating read. -- Rebecca Bentley * Cornwall Today * [A] lively volume. -- Janette Currie * The Times Literary Supplement * This prodigious book takes us on a fascinating excursion around a Britain obscure to most of us. Parker digs into the constantly changing underground tunnels of caving, navigating the land's canalways and explores the megalithic shape of the nation with its prehistoric monuments- or 'stone fingers'- that 'bejewel Britain like the studs and rings of body piercings' -- Julia Richardson * Daily Mail *
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ISBN-13
978-1-4735-1347-1 (9781473513471)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Joanne Parker is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Exeter. She has always been interested in the British countryside, in British eccentricities, and in questions of identity. She has lived in York, Edinburgh, Cumbria, Quebec, and now lives on Dartmoor (next door to a pub allegedly built around a standing stone), with a morris dancer, two daughters and a flock of black sheep.
