Low Country

Brexit on the Essex Coast

Tom Bolton

• Publisher: Penned In The Margins
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781908058706
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Travel

"Out on the estuary a slab of land had separated itself from the horizon and was moving closer"

Shortlisted for the New Angle Prize 2019

In 2016 Tom Bolton set out on a mission to walk the long, winding coastline of Essex — from Purfleet on the Thames Estuary to the Suffolk border.

Low Country records his probing, hallucinatory journeys along crumbling sea-walls and through retail parks, past abandoned military forts and plotlands. He uncovers an ancient battlefield upstream from a decommissioned nuclear power station, visits England's most deprived community and treks the remote and beautiful Dengie peninsula in search of forgotten stories.

In the treacherous mudflats and coastal resorts of England's eastern edge, an alternative vision begins to emerge, shaken by Brexit and the rise of new, populist politics in Britain and America. In this low country of vast horizons, where land and sea are in constant flux, Bolton discovers a hidden history of invasion, resistance and radical thinking. A timely new book from the celebrated author of London's Lost Rivers and Vanished City, Low Country repositions the edgelands of Essex at the political and imaginative heart of England.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

ADAM, DAVID. 8 October 2007. ‘Back to nature: £12m plan to let sea flood reclaimed land and recreate lost habitats’. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2007/oct/08/conservation [Accessed 12 June 2018]

ALLINGHAM, MARGERY. 1923 [1974]. Blackkerchief Dick. (Kaye and Ward Ltd.)

allingham, Margery. 1941 [1987]. The Oaken Heart. (Sarsen Publishing).

ANON. 991 [1981]. The Battle of Maldon. (Manchester University Press, ed. D.G. Scragg).

ANON. 5 October 1889. ‘The Essex Archipelago’. The Spectator, p.14-15

BAKER, J.A. 1967. The Peregrine. (Penguin).

BAKER, J.A. 2010. The Complete Works of J.A. Baker. Introduction by Cocker, Mark (Harper Collins).

BARING-GOULD, SABINE. 1880 [2002]. Mehalah: A Story of the Salt Marshes (Braiswick).

BARING-GOULD, SABINE, 1925. Further Reminiscences. John Lane.

BAX, CLIFFORD. 1939. Highways and Byways in Essex. (Macmillan and Co.).

BELLOC, HILAIRE. 1925. The Cruise of the ‘Nona’. (Houghton Mifflin).

BENNETT, ARNOLD. 1914. From the Log of the Velsa. (The Century Co.).

BENSUSAN, SAMUEL LEVY. 1938. Marshland Calling. (George Routledge and Sons.)

BENSUSAN, SAMUEL LEVY. 1949. Right Forward Folk. (Routledge and Keegan Paul.)

BLYTHE, RONALD. 1988. In Praise of Essex: An Anthology. (The Alastair Press).

BOOTH, CHARLES. 1886-1903. Inquiry into the Life and Labour of the People in London. (LSE, booth.lse.ac.uk).

BRACE, MARIANNE. 6 January 2006. ‘Lavinia Greenlaw: Testament of Middle Age’. The Independent. https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/lavinia-greenlaw-testament-of-middle-youth-521740.html [Accessed 12 June 2018]

BRUCE, KEN. 2003. ‘The Dengie Hundred Coal Miners’, Essex Harvest. (Essex Record Office).

CHIN, T. & WELSBY, P. 2004. ‘Malaria in the UK: Past, present and future’. British Medical Journal, Vol. 80, Issue 949.

CONRAD, JOSEPH. 1902 [1973]. Heart of Darkness. (Penguin).

CREME, BENJAMIN. May 2016. ‘Return Visit’. Share International Magazine. http://share-international.org/magazine/old_issues/2016/2016-05.htm [Accessed 12 June 2018]

DAILY GAZETTE, ‘Tiptree Strawberry Race’, 30 June 2016

DEFOE, DANIEL. 1724-26 [1972]. A Tour Through the Whole Island of Great Britain. (Penguin).

DUCK, ROBERT. 2015. On the Edge: Coastl...

Table of contents

• COVER
• ALSO BY TOM BOLTON
• TITLE PAGE
• COPYRIGHT
• THANKS
• CONTENTS
• INTRODUCTION
• I. GATEWAY
• II. ESTUARY
• III. DENGIE
• IV. NORTHEY
• V. BLACKWATER
• VI. TENDRING
• VII. MERSEA
• VIII. MARSH
• IX. THE NAZE
• X. THE SOKENS
• XI. STOUR
• XII. ARCHIPELAGO
• BIBLIOGRAPHY