Lost to the Sea: Lisa Woollett

Medieval kingdoms. Notorious pirate towns. Drowned churches. Crocodile-infested swamps.

On a series of coastal walks, Lisa Woollett takes us on an illuminating journey, bringing to life the places where mythology and reality meet at the very edges of Britain and Ireland. From Bronze Age settlements on the Isles of Scilly and submerged prehistoric forests in Wales, to a Victorian amusement park on the Isle of Wight and castles in the air off County Clare, Lisa draws together archaeology, meetings with locals and tales from folklore to reveal how the sea has forged, shaped and often overwhelmed these landscapes and communities.

Lost to the Sea is an exhilarating voyage around the ever-shifting shores of the British Isles, and a haunting ode to our profound relationship with the sea.

Lisa is the author and photographer of several award-winning books, and Rag and Bone (John Murray 2020) won the Royal Society of Literature Giles St Aubyn Award for Non-fiction. 

A beachcomber and mudlark, Lisa grew up by the sea on the Isle of Sheppey at the mouth of the Thames. Her grandfather was from a South London family in the ‘scavenging professions’ and she spent much of her childhood fossicking along the island’s shores, collecting—among other things—fossils, sharks’ teeth and old bottles. For the last 20 years she has lived with her family and a lurcher in Cornwall, in a house shared with buckets and boxes of shore finds.

Lisa is a celebrated photographer and she will be illustrating her talk with some of the photos of the places she has visited. 

Praise for Lost to the Sea:

'An immersive and lyrically personal journey through deep-time and modern tides' RAYNOR WINN
'Wondrous, elegant and haunting, Lost to the Sea is a fascinating alternative history of the fractured, flooded and eroded edges of Britain and Ireland' PHILIP HOARE
'A hugely enjoyable mosaic of history, myth and imagination' SARA WHEELER
'Beautifully written and researched ... I was immediately tempted to head out in search of lost lands' WYL MENMUIR

Friday 24th May 2024 - 7.30pm

Tickets £6.00