Alice Albinia is an award-winning author of fiction and non-fiction. Her books include Empires of the Indus- The Story of a River and Cwen, set on an archipelago which comes under female rule, which was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction and Scotland's National Book Awards. Albinia has worked as an editor and journalist, writing for publications including the Guardian, Financial Times and National Geographic. She has taught writing in Orkney for the Islands' Council, at King's College London and the University of Kent.
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.
*Hannah Dawson*
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.
*Amy Jeffs, author of Storyland and Wild*
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.
*Iain Sinclair*
A passionate rich work of historical scholarship and poetic
imagination.
*Xiaolu Guo, author of Radical: A Life of My Own*
Bewitching and illuminating, glinting with possibilities… I’ll be
thinking about The Britannias for a long time.
*Melissa Harrison, author of All Among the Barley*
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.
*Financial Times*
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.
*Times Literary Supplement*
Islands always intrigue, hovering on the horizons of our
imaginations ... [Albinia] makes memorable connections, meets some
engaging people and offers some salutary observations.
*The Spectator*
Spellbinding... an impressive achievement.
*New Statesman*
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'
*Neel Mukherjee*
A wild ride! She sees Graves' White Goddess and raises 50 with
female magic and transformations.
*Margaret Atwood*
Magical, rich and magnificent.
*Maxine Peake*
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