Coasting: Running Around the Coast of Britain – Life, Love and (Very) Loose Plans

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The year is 1982 and Thatcherite Britain is in deep trouble, its cod war lost, its industries failing, its national conversation full of “infantile excitement” about the unfolding Falklands War.

This was a lovely travel account of Raban’s 1982 journey around the coast of England in a boat, “coasting” from unknown town to remembered city.A freelance assignment for the BBC, recording Freya Stark barging down the Euphrates, inspired his first travel book, Arabia: Through the Looking Glass (1979). Harry’ Bagshaw kept notes of his experiences, the cargoes carried and the freight rates earned, throughout his career afloat. Reading Coasting is like listening to a friend tell a tale down the pub that you can’t quite believe.

Anna McNuff, author and adventurer'Elise's irresistibly readable adventures are both ordinary and extraordinary at the same time. Raban joins the miners on the picket lines to see what real political action is like and takes the views from the locals on their opinions of the Falklands War. The story of course is a bit repetitive but her sharing of her ups and downs, good and bad days, the encounters with wonderful people, scary cows, bog and mud and Scottish heatwaves is told in a light and funny and engaging manner.I really liked the way that she is very honest about the tears and the mental struggle, her weaknesses, as well as the physical effort of running. Salman Rushdie Coasting round Britain single-handed in an antique two-masted sailing boat, Jonathan Raban conducts a masterly exploration of England and the English at the time of Margaret Thatcher and the Falklands War. Elise is so candid about her experience and I found this approach refreshing and generous and, at times, hilarious. She also ran a lot of it with others who followed her journey on social media and who she’d met as part of the Yes Tribe.

The sale of customised goods or perishable goods, sealed audio or video recordings, or software, which has been opened. Sitting at work one day, she hit upon the obvious solution:Run 5,000 miles around the coast of Britain, carrying her kit on her back.With wry humour and acid incisiveness he includes personal snippets here and there – like his first (unsuccessful) sexual encounter as an awkward teenager, which is hilarious. At the start he decribes being galvanised by earlier sailing books written by authors with "philistine certainties . It wasn't a debate, it was a verbal bloodletting, with words standing for the guns and bayonets that would come later when the fleet reached the islands. Overall, I guess I would recommend this for younger readers who are looking for some adventure inspiration.