The Way to the Sea

Caroline Crampton

Granta

£14.99

Caroline Crampton is not a sailor but is the child of sailors. Her parents came to England from South Africa in the 1980s, settling first in St Katherine’s Dock, then on the Isle of Sheppey. Every weekend was spent sailing and, as Crampton re-joins them for a trip downriver, she admires their unobtrusive seamanship and analyses her own intense response to the colours, the smells and the powerful, swirling motion of the tidal Thames. Her exploration began in the boggy meadows near Kemble and will end in ‘the great watery drabness’ of the Nore. It’s deeply literary and well-researched, showing particular concern for the dispossessed – such as the 11300 people displaced when St Katherine’s Dock was built in 1825.  A thoughtful, beautifully-written appreciation.