Sarn Helen: A Journey Through Wales, Past, Present and Future (Hardback)
  • Sarn Helen: A Journey Through Wales, Past, Present and Future (Hardback)
  • Sarn Helen: A Journey Through Wales, Past, Present and Future (Hardback)
  • Sarn Helen: A Journey Through Wales, Past, Present and Future (Hardback)
  • Sarn Helen: A Journey Through Wales, Past, Present and Future (Hardback)
  • Sarn Helen: A Journey Through Wales, Past, Present and Future (Hardback)
zoom
Sarn Helen: A Journey Through Wales, Past, Present and Future (Hardback) Sarn Helen: A Journey Through Wales, Past, Present and Future (Hardback) Sarn Helen: A Journey Through Wales, Past, Present and Future (Hardback) Sarn Helen: A Journey Through Wales, Past, Present and Future (Hardback)

Sarn Helen: A Journey Through Wales, Past, Present and Future (Hardback)

(author), (illustrator)
1 Review Sign in to write a review
£16.99
Hardback 288 Pages
Published: 02/02/2023

This product is only available to collect in store.

  • This item has been added to your basket
Waterstones Says

Told through Bullough's captivating prose and Morris' stunning illustrations, Sarn Helen is a mesmerising exploration of Wales, from the myths and history of the nation to the alarming effects of climate change on its coastline today.

Waterstones Welsh Book of the Year 2023

Longlisted for the James Cropper Wainwright Prize for Writing on Global Conservation 2023

From the author of Addlands, and featuring illustrations by Jackie Morris, an immersive and evocative non-fictional journey through Wales and a revelatory meditation on the nation's past, present and future.

Sarn Helen - Helen's Causeway - is the old Roman Road that runs from the south of Wales to the north. As Tom walks the route, sometimes alone, sometimes in company, he describes the changing landscape around him and explores the political, cultural and mythical history of this country that has been so divided, by language and by geography.

Running alongside this journey is the story of Tom's engagement with the issue of the climate crisis and its likely impact on the Welsh coastline. From one of Wales' most celebrated younger writers, Sarn Helen is at once a vivid and immersive portrait of a nation, and a resonant meditation upon the way in which we are shaped by place and in turn shape the places - potentially irrevocably.

Publisher: Granta Books
ISBN: 9781783788095
Number of pages: 288
Weight: 415 g
Dimensions: 220 x 140 x 30 mm


MEDIA REVIEWS

A delight. [Bullough] writes elegantly on nature and his chapters are beautifully illustrated by Jackie Morris - Simon Jenkins, TLS

Deeply moving... If nature writers want to draw more people to the environmental cause, this book makes clear that love works much better than fear - Spectator

The poetry of Bullough's writing is ever present, mirroring rivers, rolling farmland and high, rocky ridges... despite the many times I have wept inconsolably whilst reading, this book is an absolute must. It has left an imprint upon my soul - Nation, Cymru

Vital, and urgent with concern. You cannot leave this book without its message thundering in your head. It is not enough to walk old routes. This was. Now what? - Cynan Jones

A profound and beautiful portrait of Wales. With great charm and learning, Tom Bullough walks us through the country's leafy backways, its deep pasts, the sparkling shards of its identity, its vanishing rural traditions and its fragile ecology - Philip Marsden

A crucial book for now... Bullough has produced a multilayered and compelling account of his home's imperilled future... Stunning - Gwyneth Lewis

Thrilling. I was bewitched by the experience of seeing as Tom Bullough does, with such insight, such deep learning, such humour and such urgency. This is the finest kind of travel writing: a book that makes you see what is really there, and fills you with the author's passion to defend it - Horatio Clare

Sarn Helen is accomplished and stunning in every one of its many personalities: as history, as memoir, as eco-parable, as impassioned call to arms. The world of this book is one of awe and joy and one which we need to protect from human predation until our last collective breath - Niall Griffiths

A wondrous and arresting journey teeming with wisdom, insights and humanity. Walking through Wales with Bullough is to see the nation - and the UK - with new eyes - Ben Rawlence

A rapturous lamentation, and a winding tale with an unswerving message. One of the best books I've read on the climate emergency - Chloe Aridjis

Part love-letter, part lament, part call-to-action, Sarn Helen is one man's passionate attempt - in prose that's at once lyrical and forensic - to put into words what's at stake for us all in our present moment - Carys Davies

Tom Bullough meets centurions, saints and climate scientists alike, and has them all help him weave an urgent and powerful narrative of past, present and future... A joyous voyage of discovery, of Wales itself, of Tom's place within it, and the nuggets buried deep in its bedrock that might just help point us towards some hope - Mike Parker, author of On the Red Hill

A deeply engaging, and deeply engaged, travelogue by one of our finest and (old-fashioned word that I can find no modish synonym for) noblest writers - Gregory Norminton

Sarn Helen is a beautifully downbeat travelogue that's full of love, rage and humour. A brilliant, pivotal book by one of the most engaged and engaging writers around, it will change you - Toby Litt

This is a book that needs to be read... At its gentle, beautiful (and beautifully illustrated) heart is a dark voice of warning and petition. Tom is part of a generation fighting for the world and Sarn Helen also movingly and frighteningly holds the shocking realities and hypocrisies of inaction and indifference powerfully up to the lens - Rob Cowen

An impassioned book that rings with beauty, grief and urgency. As he journeys through Wales' past, present and future, Bullough sounds a clarion call for us all to play our part in averting global catastrophe - Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent

Sarn Helen is an extraordinary combination of journey, climate change reflection, and history. Beautifully written by the GENIUS that is Tom Bullough and exquisitely illustrated - Nicola Davies

Illuminating - Patrick Barkham, Oldie

A book of our time which spoke to me because it provides a local, relatable, perspective on the climate crisis - Modron

The joy of the book is in its attention to smaller things, from the flight patterns of birds to the gleaming Subaru Imprezas on housing estates... Bullough is a master craftsman - Prospect

Evocative - Simple Things

A state-of-the-nation portrait of Wales... His account of the disasters that threaten his country also stands as a wider warning to the rest of us - I News

You may also be interested in...

Wind, Sand and Stars
Added to basket
Poetics
Added to basket
Paperback
£9.99
Hell's Angels
Added to basket
Paperback
£9.99
Books v. Cigarettes
Added to basket
The Periodic Table
Added to basket
Paperback
£8.99
Green Hills of Africa
Added to basket
The Mabinogion
Added to basket
Paperback
£9.99
Revelations of Divine Love
Added to basket
Dylan Thomas Omnibus
Added to basket
Politics and the English Language
Added to basket
What is Art?
Added to basket
Paperback
£9.99
The Great Divorce
Added to basket
Paperback
£9.99
Against Interpretation and Other Essays
Added to basket
The Rebel
Added to basket
Paperback
£9.99
Essays
Added to basket
Paperback
£14.99

“The past, present and future of Wales”

Bullough makes the journey from the Neath to the coast of North Wales on foot along the route of the old Roman road connecting north and south. His beautiful prose describing the sights and conjectures on both... More

Hardback edition
Helpful? Upvote 21

Please sign in to write a review

Your review has been submitted successfully.