The Turning Tide

‘Fascinating, spellbinding, erudite and great fun – every page made me want to walk out the door and go look at the Irish Sea.’ Roddy Doyle ‘The book equivalent of being hosted by a travelling storyteller around a fire.’ Gwenno ‘Remarkable. Lively … Gower writes beautifully [and] the book is profoundly popular.’ Times Literary Supplement ‘As full of life and vitality as the sea itself.’ Nicholas Crane, author of The Making of the British Landscape ‘The Irish Sea has found her bard. This is a dazzle of storytelling, an enthralling trove of history and a joyful work of travel and reportage, singing with the love of the sea. Nobody can tell a tale like Jon Gower.' Horatio Clare, author of Down To The Sea In Ships ‘A beautifully absorbing read encompassing aeons of human and natural histories. What a remarkable, generous, compendious achievement.' Neil Hegarty, author of The Story of Ireland ‘Contagious with delight and fascination. The seeming informality, the twinkle-in-the-eye in the telling, the gentle provocation make it a joy to read. Jon's perhaps brought into a being a new class of book, for it's nothing if not a “Racontography.”’ Cynan Jones, author of Stillicide ‘In prose as glittering as the ocean itself, Gower unearths the saints and smugglers, the birds and bards that have inhabited this salty kingdom. In The Turning Tide, the Irish Sea roars with a unique passion and character.’ Mike Parker, author of All the Wide Border ‘An elegant, engrossing portrait of the turbulent Irish Sea. Bursting with detailed natural history and stories of conquest, love, tragedy, and poetry alike, and so teeming with life, you can’t stop reading.’ Bathsheba Demuth, author of Floating Coast ‘Riveting.’ Independent.ie