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Shadowlands (Hardback)

Matthew Green

The untold story of the hidden places across Britain that have slipped through the fingers of history.

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Currently Unavailable
Format
Hardback
ISBN
9780571338023
Date Published
17.03.2022
Delivery
All orders are sent via Royal Mail and are tracked: choose from standard or premium delivery.
Summary

THE TIMES TOP 10 BESTSELLER
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE

Drowned. Buried by sand. Decimated by plague. Plunged off a cliff.

This is the forgotten history of Britain’s lost cities, ghost towns and vanished villages: our shadowlands.

‘A beautiful book, truly original . . . It is a marvellous achievement.’
IAN MORTIMER, author of The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England

‘Well researched, beautifully written and packed with interesting detail.’
CLAIRE TOMALIN

‘An exquisitely written, moving and elegiac exploration.’
SUZANNAH LIPSCOMB

‘Consistently interesting . . . Green’s passion and historical vision bursts from the page, summoning up the past in surround sound and sensual prose.’
CAL FLYN, THE TIMES (author of Islands of Abandonment)

Historian Matthew Green travels across Britain to tell the forgotten history of our lost cities, ghost towns and vanished villages. Revealing the extraordinary stories of how these places met their fate – and exploring how they have left their mark on our landscape and our imagination – Shadowlands is a deeply evocative and dazzlingly original account of Britain’s past.

‘An eloquent tour of lost communities.’
PD SMITH, GUARDIAN

‘A haunting, lyrical tour around the lost places of Britain.’
CHARLOTTE HIGGINS, author of Under Another Sky

‘A miraculous work of resurrection, stinging in a perpetual present’.
IAIN SINCLAIR, author of The Gold Machine

‘Beautifully written.’ SUNDAY TIMES
‘Startling.’ FINANCIAL TIMES
‘Splendid.’ THE HERALD
‘Compelling.’ HISTORY TODAY
‘Excellent.’ THE SPECTATOR
‘Fascinating.’ DAILY MAIL
‘Accomplished.’ CAUGHT BY THE RIVER
‘Outstanding.’ MIRROR

Critic Reviews

Shadowlands is so well researched, beautifully written and packed with interesting detail. Green is both historian and prophet, offering a warning we need to pay attention to . . . alarming and valuable.

Claire Tomalin
Critic Reviews

A beautiful book, truly original. Shadowlands is poetic history written with great literary flair, inquisitiveness, soul-searching and humanity. The part-travelogue, part-history approach conjures up a wonderful series of worlds lost, time passing and sympathy with the dead. It is a marvellous achievement.

Ian Mortimer, author of THE TIME TRAVELLER'S GUIDE TO MEDIEVAL ENGLAND
Critic Reviews

An exquisitely written, moving, and elegiac exploration of the dead ends and lost causes of history — a book to savour and cherish.

Suzannah Lipscomb
Critic Reviews

Here is that most mysterious of all journeys, into towns, coasts, settlements that no longer exist, but which — miraculously — are brought back to challenge us, to question our carelessness and neglect. A haunting work of resurrection, stinging in a perpetual present. Shamanic consciousness for the borderlands of memory.

Iain Sinclair, author of THE GOLD MACHINE
Critic Reviews

A haunting, lyrical tour around the lost places of Britain, from the Welsh village of Capel Celyn, flooded to bring water to Liverpool, to the once bustling town of Dunwich, now perished beneath the North Sea.

Charlotte Higgins
Critic Reviews

Superb. A beautifully written atlas of Ghost Britain, a summoning of places lost to memory, and a deft excavation of the void underlying myths of national identity.

William Atkins, author of EXILES
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MatthewGreen

Dr Matthew Green is a historian, writer and broadcaster with a doctorate from Oxford University. He has appeared in documentaries on the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, and has written historical features for the Guardian and Financial Times. He is the founder of Unreal City Audio, which produces immersive tours of London as live events, podcasts and apps. He is…

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