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Edgelands
Michael Symmons Roberts
€ 14.99
€ 11.77
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Description for Edgelands
Paperback. Passed through, negotiated, unacknowledged: the edgelands - those familiar yet ignored spaces which are neither city nor countryside - have become the great wild places on our doorsteps. This title describes mobile masts and gravel pits, business parks and landfill sites, taking us on a journey to marvel at these mysterious regions in our midst. Num Pages: 272 pages. BIC Classification: 1DBK; DN; WTL. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 199 x 134 x 18. Weight in Grams: 196.
The wilderness is much closer than you think. Passed through, negotiated, unnamed, unacknowledged: the edgelands - those familiar yet ignored spaces which are neither city nor countryside - have become the great wild places on our doorsteps.
In the same way the Romantic writers taught us to look at hills, lakes and rivers, poets Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts write about mobile masts and gravel pits, business parks and landfill sites, taking the reader on a journey to marvel at these richly mysterious, forgotten regions in our midst.
Edgelands forms a critique of what we value as 'wild', and allows our allotments, railways, motorways, wasteland and water a presence in the world, and a strange beauty all of their own.
Product Details
Publisher
Vintage Publishing
Number of pages
272
Format
Paperback
Publication date
2012
Condition
New
Number of Pages
272
Place of Publication
London, United Kingdom
ISBN
9780099539773
SKU
V9780099539773
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 5 to 9 working days
Ref
99-35
About Michael Symmons Roberts
Michael Symmons Roberts (Author) Michael Symmons Roberts was born in Preston, Lancashire in 1963. His books of poetry have won many awards including the Forward Prize and the Costa Poetry Award for Drysalter (2013) and the Whitbread Poetry Prize for Corpus (2004). His Selected Poems was published by Cape in 2016. As a librettist, his work with composers has been performed in concert halls and opera houses around the world. The Sacrifice (for Welsh National Opera) with composer James MacMillan, won an RPS Award for Opera, and choral works Elliptics (for BBC Philharmonic) and The Anvil (for Manchester International Festival) with composer Emily Howard, were both nominated for Ivor Novello Awards. His non-fiction book Edgelands (with Paul Farley, 2011) won the Foyles Book of Ideas Award and the Jerwood Prize. He is an award-winning broadcaster and dramatist, Professor of Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Paul Farley (Author) Paul Farley is the author of four collections of poetry and has won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, the Whitbread Poetry Award and the E.M. Forster Award. He broadcasts regularly on radio and presents The Echo Chamber on Radio 4. Edgelands, co-written with Michael Symmons Roberts, received the Royal Society of Literature’s Jerwood Award and the 2011 Foyles Best Book of Ideas Award and was serialised as Radio 4 Book of the Week.
Reviews for Edgelands
This book is a delight: witty and wryly contrarian
Robert MacFarlane
Guardian
A masterpiece of its kind... Even more uplifting is the chapter on weather - truly one of the most extraordinary passages of prose I have read in some time... This is, quite simply, beautiful, but it is also typical of a beautifully conceived work of exploration, by two emissaries to the wilderness who do the wasteland proud
John Burnside
The Times
Marvellously quirky, fascinatingly detailed and beautifully written
Daily Telegraph
The edgelands, where the veneer of civilisation peels away, are the most despised and ignored of landscapes. Ambition turns to dust in the sewage farm and landfill site. But Farley and Roberts's mischievous and elegant forays into these marginal wastes, show that dust turns back to life in them - into riotous ecologies, agitprop architecture and the wonderful business of playing. A provocative, left-field read
Richard Mabey Haunting, often inspiring book...Edgelands covers an impressive range of politics, reminiscence, investigation and rumination
Scotland on Sunday
Edgelands delights with its sly, impish wit and observation
Spectator
Eye-opening and hugely enjoyable book ... overall this is an original, surprising and rather wonderful addition to our literature of place
Sunday Telegraph
A book that begs us to use our imaginations; to appreciate what we pass by every day but never really see
Metro
This is a delightful and important book. By focusing on the fringes, on the shabby reality of suburban life, these poets remind us that there are always new myths for old, that the 'edgelands' may even be our true centre
John Greening
Country Life
With chapters on paths, dens, wastelands, business parks and many other topics, this book has opened my eyes to all kinds of things I might not have noticed before
Wendy Cope
Daily Telegraph
Robert MacFarlane
Guardian
A masterpiece of its kind... Even more uplifting is the chapter on weather - truly one of the most extraordinary passages of prose I have read in some time... This is, quite simply, beautiful, but it is also typical of a beautifully conceived work of exploration, by two emissaries to the wilderness who do the wasteland proud
John Burnside
The Times
Marvellously quirky, fascinatingly detailed and beautifully written
Daily Telegraph
The edgelands, where the veneer of civilisation peels away, are the most despised and ignored of landscapes. Ambition turns to dust in the sewage farm and landfill site. But Farley and Roberts's mischievous and elegant forays into these marginal wastes, show that dust turns back to life in them - into riotous ecologies, agitprop architecture and the wonderful business of playing. A provocative, left-field read
Richard Mabey Haunting, often inspiring book...Edgelands covers an impressive range of politics, reminiscence, investigation and rumination
Scotland on Sunday
Edgelands delights with its sly, impish wit and observation
Spectator
Eye-opening and hugely enjoyable book ... overall this is an original, surprising and rather wonderful addition to our literature of place
Sunday Telegraph
A book that begs us to use our imaginations; to appreciate what we pass by every day but never really see
Metro
This is a delightful and important book. By focusing on the fringes, on the shabby reality of suburban life, these poets remind us that there are always new myths for old, that the 'edgelands' may even be our true centre
John Greening
Country Life
With chapters on paths, dens, wastelands, business parks and many other topics, this book has opened my eyes to all kinds of things I might not have noticed before
Wendy Cope
Daily Telegraph