We Are All Adrift by David Banning

4 out of 5 stars

The publisher provided a copy of this, free of charge, in return for an honest review.

The boundary between land and sea is constantly changing. Twice a day, the tides ebb and flo,w bringing water up and down the shoreline, and the weather can give us millpond stillness on the ocean or the full wrath of a winter storm, plus everything in between.

Moving between land and sea can be as easy as launching from a shallow sandy beach or almost impossible when you mix vertical cliffs and pounding waves. A harbour makes that transition between land and sea so much easier, regardless of the size of the vessel.

Banning makes the 320-mile journey from Morecambe Bay to the Sussex coast to visit his mother on a regular basis. He sometimes will use this as a stepping stone, taking the ferry to Dieppe to holiday in France. A route that I have done myself a number of times when we have holidayed there in the past. It turns out that this route was the same one that Ho Chi Minh was also on back in the early 19th century. Who knew?

This region is also on the ‘front line’. That is, if you believe the nonsense pedalled out by the right-wing press and amplified by populist far-right-wing politicians who thrive on lies and misdirection.

The truth is much more nuanced than that (read We Came by Sea for a more balanced view). Whilst there will always be the occasional troublemaker arriving in the country, they are few and far between. In fact, probably even less so than in the ranks that support the populists.

The great artist, Eric Ravilious, famous for his pastiches of the rolling Sussex downlands, is also linked to Morecambe. There he was involved in decorating the tea room in the Midland Railway Hotel on the promenade. Banning also talks about another artist that I have never come across before, Harold Mockford. Iam aware of Ravilious’ work, but not yet discovered Mockford. He writes about the decisions that we take, which shape the direction of our lives and the inherent strangeness of our lives.

We have the famous Old Harry Rocks here in Dorset, but in Sussex, that probably an even more famous set of chalk cliffs called the Seven Sisters. These are quite imposing and close to Beachy Head that I have been to the top of a few times. Banning describes them as ‘hung like white curtains’ and like Old Harry Rocks, they are a big draw for tourists, and they are both being eroded by the relentless power of the sea.

I did like this book; however, I did find it a very difficult book to categorise. It is part memoir, part art book, along with a dusting of travel writing. Along with that, it is an observation of the state of our nation through the prism of Newhaven harbour. Banning gets to see it through an outsider’s eyes, as well as noting how the artists Mockford and Ravilious interpreted it in their own  way. I really liked the art of Ian Sharp and the photos that Banning has taken. However, If I were to have one criticism of this book, I found it too short, and it left me wanting more.