Here I am reading a chapter from my new book with Louis Netter, Coast of Teeth: Travels to English Seaside Towns in an Age of Anxiety.
‘Depressed by all the rubbish we found on the last trip, we want to know what can be done about it. Our good friend and colleague at the University of Portsmouth, Dan McCabe is one of a rising number of beachcombers who help to clean the coast. ‘If we find plastic we pick it up and put it in the bin,’ he says as we trudge the green seaweed-carpeted shingle of Langstone Bay on a steaming June day. ‘A lot of people’s activities take place on land,’ says Dan, ‘and others, like sailors and surfers, operate in the sea. You hope they respect their environments. Beachcombers inhabit the space between land and sea and we have to respect it.’
The book is out now and available to buy here.
What reviewers are saying:
‘An enjoyable read. The illustrations have a mutant Donald McGill vibe.’
Will Self
‘Sykes and Netter adopt a rather gonzo-ish methodology, imbibing a sample of what the locals imbibe, which is usually bibulous, immersing themselves in the often gauche ambience and bonhomie of it all. Sykes’ hyper-kinetic, densely detailed prose and Netter’s riotous celebration of the grotesque evokes the aesthetic of Hunter S. Thompson and Ralph Steadman, creating an English equivalent – “Fear and Loathing in Lyme Regis” perhaps.’
Dr Kevan Manwaring, Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Arts University Bournemouth
Tom Sykes 