New Books In Geography

Peter Naldrett, author of Around the Coast in 80 Days: A Guide to Britain’s Best Coastal Towns, Beaches, Cliffs, & Headlands (Bloomsbury) begins his enjoyable trip around the British coast with the notion that reaching the seaside for most Britons is a matter of only a 1-2 hour car ride. And the foreign reader begins to understand just why Britain’s seaside towns are so engrained in the nation’s culture. The appeal of the bracing English seaside as an attractive destination began in the eighteenth century, when resorts such as Scarborough attracted city dwellers with promises of renewed health and vigor and cures for ailments as diverse as gout and barrenness. From that time, port and coastal cities took on more significance than just places from which to embark on a journey or return from one. The energetic Victorian Age, with its rapid expansion of industry and transportation, made a journey to the seaside affordable and accessible for everyone from farm workers in the Midlands to factory workers from Manch