The Coast Road: A 3,000 Mile Journey Round the Edge of England

Winner of the ‘Travel Narrative Book of the Year’ in 2005 by the British Guild of Travel Writers (BGTW), 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.