Madeleine Bunting in conversation with Jules Pretty
The Seaside: England’s Love Affair

SOLD OUT!!

Where better to discuss the enduring appeal of England’s coastal resorts than beautiful Frinton-on-Sea.

Journeying clockwise around England from Scarborough to Morecambe, The Seaside is Madeleine Bunting’s exploration of England’s great seaside resorts to understand their origins and their heyday, their ongoing influence, and their current struggle.

Madeleine will be in conversation with Jules Pretty, Professor of Environment and Society at the University of Essex

Frinton-on-Sea Library, 59 Old Road, Frinton-on-Sea, CO13 9DA
Tickets: £8 / £7
Box Office: Online or Mercury Theatre 01206 573948

About the book

The Seaside is Madeleine Bunting’s exploration of England’s great seaside resorts to understand their origins and their heyday, their ongoing influence, and their current struggle.

Bunting set out to understand these hugely popular places of pleasure, entertainment and adventure, and their enduring appeal to discover what happened to the golden sands, cold seas and donkey rides of our memories.

Journeying clockwise around England from Scarborough to Morecambe along a striking variety of coastlines, she finds places struggling with the deepest deprivation and ill health in the country. Bunting explores how in their decline, these holiday towns, still so influential in English history and in the shaping of our national identity, speak powerfully to the character, priorities and state of England today.

Praise for Love of Country

“This moving and wonderful journey through the geography and history of the Hebrides uses the islands to come to a better understanding of Britain, and the idea of home.”
Amy Liptrot, Guardian
“Excellent … the perfect marriage of physical travelogue to the inner landscape of political ideas and cultural reflections.” Mark Cocker, New Statesman

About the authors

Madeleine Bunting

Madeleine Bunting is the author of several acclaimed works of non-fiction, including Labours of Love: The Crisis of Care, which was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize; Love of Country: A Hebridean Journey, which was shortlisted for the wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize and the Saltire Non-Fiction Book of the Year award; The Plot: A Biography of My Father’s English Acre, which won the Portico Prize and was shortlisted for the Ondaatje Prize, and Willing Slaves: How the Overwork Culture is Ruling Our Lives. She is also the author of two novels: Island Song and Ceremony of Innocence.

Photo of Madeleine Bunting © Howard Sooley

Jules Pretty OBE, DL, FHEA, FRSB, FRSA

Jules Pretty is Professor of Environment and Society at the University of Essex, and Director of the Centre for Public and Policy Engagement.

His books include The Low-Carbon Good Life (2023), Sea Sagas of the North (2022), The East Country (2017), The Edge of Extinction (2014), This Luminous Coast (2011), Agri-Culture (2002) and Regenerating Agriculture (1995).

He is former Deputy-Chair of the UK government’s Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment, and has written for BBC TV and radio. He received an OBE for services to sustainable agriculture, an honorary degree from Ohio State University, and the British Science Association Presidential Medal.

This Luminous Coast won the New Angle Prize for Literature in 2013, and The East Country was winner of the East Anglian book of the year in 2018. He was appointed President of Essex Wildlife Trust in 2019, is Chair of the Essex Climate Action Commission, and is host of the podcast Louder Than Words.

https://julespretty.com