The Britannias

Reviews

A dazzlingly brilliant book. Travelling by boat, swimming through kelp, riding on a fishing trawler, Alice Albinia takes us on an extraordinary journey around the British isles, revealing a liquid past where women ruled and mermaids sang and tracing the sea-changes of her own heart. Spellbinding... an impressive achievement. PRAISE FOR CWEM: 'A wild, original, surefooted feminist reimagining of the present and the past that brushes up against the mythical. It reminds us, eloquently and passionately, what is or can be possible, and in its depiction of a revolutionary becomes revolutionary itself. Beautiful work' A wild ride! She sees Graves' White Goddess and raises 50 with female magic and transformations. Magical, rich and magnificent. Fascinating, often exhilarating ... By the end of her survey readers may wonder how the term “island mentality” ever became a disparagement. It should connote not small-mindedness but radical, progressive, sometimes magical thinking. ... Albinia is an intrepid, imaginative guide, an adventurer for our more environmentally conscious age. By looking more closely at the periphery, we might learn something new about the centre ... Albinia’s prose is impressive ... the main impression given by The Britannias is the uniqueness of our outlying islands, each one entire unto itself. Islands always intrigue, hovering on the horizons of our imaginations ... [Albinia] makes memorable connections, meets some engaging people and offers some salutary observations. There are books crafted from research, worthy and informative. And there are books that happen. That need to happen. That feel inevitable. As if they have always, somehow, been there waiting for us. The voyages of Alice Albinia around our ragged fringes range through time, recovering and resurrecting the most potent myths. A work of integrity and vision. An artful book of waterways and wildernesses, monastic havens and tax havens. A fascinating demonstration that Britain ‘singular’ is shorthand for something tectonically, volcanically plural. A passionate rich work of historical scholarship and poetic imagination. Bewitching and illuminating, glinting with possibilities… I’ll be thinking about The Britannias for a long time. Expand reviews