The Coast Road

The Coast Road presents an idiosyncratic and illuminating snapshot of England and what it is to be English today. In this travelogue, award-winning writer Paul Gogarty travels 3,000 miles in a motorhome, exploring intimate coastal communities and ruminating on the future of the English coast. All points of the compass are covered; after an unsettling benediction at Dover's Eastern Docks he travels to Derek Jarman's Dungeness; to rakish Brighton and Madame Rosina's Bournemouth; the mudflats and Arabian sands of the north-west, where he joins a roomful of George Formbys in Blackpool; the now infamous Morcambe Bay; Billy Butlin's Skegness; and a parachuting vicar. The journey comes full circle in the secret creeks of East Anglia. The Coast Road is a warm-hearted tribute to England's coastline written by a romantic spirit who beautifully captures both the idiosyncrasies of the nation and the euphoria of the open road.