The Sea on Our Left

by Shally Hunt

This is the bestselling story of a husband and wife team who walked clockwise for 302 days around the coastline of mainland Britain. Both aged 52, they gave up comfort in Tunbridge Wells to spend the next 10 months trudging 4300 miles.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction

313 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Jim]

Early on in this travelogue, the author takes a mild swipe at her husband when she discovers he is regurgitating travel guide descriptions of many landmarks they pass, instead of having innate knowledge. I wonder, when he read the draft of this book, if he lodged the same criticism of her, because I began to suspect that this was exactly the case. The book hops, skips and jumps in this manner, where the couple will be enjoying a pint of ale in a pub and then exit, walk a bit and spot, say, a ruined monastery. Cue, “The monastery was founded in 1642 by two disgruntled pilgrims from Dorchester and gained University status by a Pledge of Dreary fifty years later. Famous for brewing mead, it soon had five hundred residents, increasing production and using a thousand bales of barley a week…..” Zzzzzzz. Next they arrive at that night’s accommodation for a similar scintillating narrative about the dinner menu where a polite appraisal would be made. I longed for her to vent a torrent of bile over an undercooked sea bass that saw her having the runs for days, but this was never going to happen. This couple, unfortunately, are so Middle Class English that it makes your teeth ache, a situation I’ve come across in other travelogues.
While we get paragraphs of description about muddy paths, pouring rain and deserted beaches, the people that are met are often summarily dismissed with a thumbnail sketch. I gave up when she stayed with a bohemian bloke who had two wives who all “had great stories to tell”, and then proceeds to tell us absolutely none of them! She probably doesn’t want to break a confidence, but even if one of them had broken wind it would have livened the account. But, you suspect, that would be politely ignored too, while a seagull passing the window would get a descriptive paragraph to itself.
Sorry. Too boring. Next!

[Oggie Ramos]

I tried to read and give this book a chance but got to page 50, stopped, tried again but at page 76, stopped again for good. The author is bogged down by details, the pace frantic and lacking in focus as if she is concerned more about the destination than the journey itself. The places become a blur as if she was rattling off names in a map instead of indulging the reader in how she experienced those places. I also thought that the book could've benefited from the perspective of the husband's voice so it would really be a chronicle of a couple's quest, not the snickering, self-centered account of a wife looking for imperfections in her partner.

Coming from the heels of reading the excellent, even if very detailed, "Clear Waters Rising" by Nicholas Crane, I think details are fine if excellently woven in the narrative as well as building to a cohesive whole. Structure-wise, the book could've used a really good book editor who would've mercilessly chopped the repetitive template of walking the slippery cliff/road, spotting a warm restaurant, drinking some beer, then repeat, formula.

Would've given this book 0 star(s) if I could.

[Nuria NA]

When I discovered this book, just arrived from a long trip to Scotland, I expected an enjoyable account of a daring adventre, with alive depictions of wonderful sceneries -which I love- and encounters with interesting people.
What I found, instead, was a boring list of petty discomforts (including stinky socks, broken boots, and numberless blisters), and details of an almost spoilt marital relationship I'd rather have been spared of. As for the edition, nobody seemed to have realised partial maps would have come handy for those interested in knowing more about the places they passed through.
I even thought about quitting reading it, but I'm one of those self-torturing readers who insist until the end, just in case it would improve. But it didn't.
All in all, if I ever enrolled in such an amazing trip, I hope I would enjoy it more than what the author seems to reveal.

[C. L.]

I like the storytelling mostly, although it keeps everything a bit on the surface.
I learned to truly dislike Richard, that's the kind of awful partner one never wishes to have.

[John]

I found the book tough going at first, as the author seemed a bit bogged down in detail during their trek through southwestern England. After that, the reading pace mellowed out for me. I found it more interesting than Spud Talbot-Ponsonby's Two Feet, Four Paws, the story of another trek around the island for charity (although that one wasn't bad).
Some reviewers have criticized Shally for her frequent "ill humor", shall we say? It's true that she's sometimes quite cranky; she's includes their rows in the book, which lead to her nearly abandoning the project a couple of times. However, it should be noted that her husband can be incredibly stubborn about refusing to ever make a single phone call, and few other things I cannot recall; to his credit, he is quite sympathetic and encouraging regarding her physical problems.
I look forward to reading the sequel (their trip through Europe): The Sea Ahead.

[Julie]

i thoroughly enjoyed this book. think it was published by the same company who published the book about spud ponsonby's coast walk. i enjoyed it just as much. i have noticed that everyone who does it, loves the scotland part of the walk best :)

[Jo]

a brilliant book about a couple's ten-month walk around the coastline of Britain - funny, heart-warming, inspiring - what a wonderful way to spend a year and how lucky we all are to live here :)