(Fourth Estate, 2001).
Netley’s vast Victorian hospital stood for one hundred years of history, its traumatic, gothic story echoing out through personal memoir and collective memory.
‘A book that has everything a passionate reader could want – a subject that far transcends the trivial pursuits of contemporary writing, concerns both public and private, astonishing details, stylistic precision, a unique sense of time and place, and a great depth of vision.’
W.G. Sebald, Sunday Telegraph.
I'm pressed by the heat into the sea, mirrored by the moon
4 am: swimming in the soft night and dark sea as the stars fall; a firework display for the fishes and me
3.30 am: swimming in a still black sea; shooting stars enough to pierce any heart