Shadowlands: A Journey through Lost Britain by Matthew Green

 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

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

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

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

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

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

Consistently interesting . . . thought-provoking . . . Green's passion and historical vision bursts from the page, summoning up the past in surround sound and sensual prose. -- Cal Flyn ― The Times

Absolutely beautiful. -- Cerys Matthews

Immersive . . . This is a beautifully written, intelligent book, and it is offered as a warning as well as a memorial. -- James McConnachie ― Sunday Times

Fascinating . . . Shadowlands amounts to a sobering reminder of earthly transience . . . Green recounts all this at a measured, engaging clip . . .Shadowlands is a well-researched, highly readable history whose deepest import may be premonitory. -- Nat Segnit ― Times Literary Supplement

In the current climate of anxiety about the future and its possible effects on our familiar habitats, what could be more appropriate than this energetic study of lost places in Britain . . . [Shadowlands] encompasses the totality of human existence . . . [Green's] knowledge and enthusiasm are obvious. -- Gillian Tindall ― Literary Review

An eloquent tour of lost communities . . . [Green] disinters their rich history and reimagines the lives of those who walked their streets . . . By doing so, he makes tangible the tragedy of their loss and the threat we all face from the climate crisis on these storm-tossed islands . . . As Green's book so eloquently shows, people are drawn to these places because they are poignant reminders of the transitory nature of our own much-loved homes and communities. -- PD Smith ― Guardian (Book of the Day)

Startling . . . Green's outstanding achievement in Shadowlands is an extraordinary chapter about land that has been far more recently lost - to requisition . . . Often playful in tone, Shadowlands nonetheless has a serious purpose. In reminding us of the loss of once-thriving communities such as Dunwich and Winchelsea, Green also offers an urgent reminder of what may lie ahead as a result of climate change and rising sea levels. -- Miranda Seymour ― Financial Times

An extraordinary book.  Buy now from Amazon

Shadowlands by Matthew Green