Shortlisted for the Nero Book Awards 2023, Undercurrent is a vivid, lyrical and powerful exploration of rural poverty, and the often devastating impact of living without the means or support to build a future
Shortlisted for the Nero Book Awards 2023, Undercurrent is a vivid, lyrical and powerful exploration of rural poverty, and the often devastating impact of living without the means or support to build a future
'At times roaring and visceral, in turn gentle and embracing, always driven by hope and determination' RAYNOR WINN
'Haunting and powerful' KATE MOSSE To grow up in rural poverty is to fight for life before you can walk.Natasha Carthew was born into a world that sat alongside picture-postcard Cornwall, one where second homes took the sea view of council properties, summer months shifted the course of people's lives, and wealth converged with poverty on sandy beaches.In the rockpools and hedgerows of the natural world, Natasha found solace in the beauty of the landscape, and in the mobile library she found her means of escape. In Undercurrent she returns to the cliff paths of her childhood, determined to make sense of an upbringing shaped by political neglect and a life defined by the beauty of nature.This is a journey through place, and a vivid story of hope, beauty and fierce resilience.'Marvellous, moving and mesmerising' ANITA SETHI 'A story of queer resistance, of community and of finding your own voice' DAMIAN BARRA powerful story of social inequality told with the depth of voice that only comes from a writer passionately rooted in place. Like the Cornish tides that fill her life, Carthew is at times roaring, visceral and exclusive, in turn gentle, embracing and inclusive, but always driven by hope and determination. Raynor Winn
Haunting and powerful, a book about the sea and the power of belonging, about secrets and words, this is a beautiful and powerful memoir. I read it in one sitting. Kate Mosse
Raw, rebellious, urgent and hopeful, this is a stunning tale of a life made and saved by nature -- Dr Helen Scales
Natasha Carthew shines the light on another side of Cornwall, one far from the world of bright Instagram pictures and celebrity travel shows. She reveals a place of poverty, dead-end jobs and little hope. But she writes so passionately about a world she knows well and her humanity and sense of humour shine though on every page, ensuring that the often dark subject matter fuels a rich, rewarding read -- Petroc Trelawny
Luscious layers of poetic prose that fluidly lead us through the landscapes and seascapes of Cornwall, recounting stories of poverty and often tough childhood struggles. Stories told by one who knew that they needed and wanted so much more for their life, but one for whom the seascape of Cornwall is still the hypnotic textural lens.
This book is a beautiful, sometimes difficult, elegy to our innermost hopes, fears and dreams. Gorgeously and generously written
Undercurrent is a fierce and different kind of nature writing, where the wildness is within as well as without: the life you're dealt, and how you manage it - survival, resourcefulness, protection, the ferocity and necessity of having an escape-dream, and the discovery of self-expression through creativity. Delivered in wave upon wave of the flotsam and jetsam, light through water, love, chaos, lack and rage, of trauma, abandonment and poverty in a rural, working class life.
An eloquent shouting into the storm, there are quiet coves, where the wild beauty of a 'destination' landscape contrasts with deep and damaging eddies of deprivation. It is also a lifting of the eyes, heart and hope above the horizon, through the life-changing power and importance of literacy, cultural capital and the mobile library, as a means of freedom and opportunity.
It's the paradox of how to love a place you belong to but cannot dwell in (that hurts you) and the need to escape it.
Brace yourself. It left me breathless, and more determined than ever, to be a good and relevant school librarian.
Natasha Carthew is a working-class writer and poet from Cornwall where she lives with her girlfriend. She is the author of eight books and is the Founder and Artistic Director of The Working Class Writers Festival.
Natasha is well known for writing on socioeconomic issues and has written extensively on the subject of how authentic rural working-class voices are represented in fiction for several publications and programmes; including ITV, the Writers' & Artists' Yearbook, The Royal Society of Authors Journal, BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4, ITV, the Guardian, the Dark Mountain Project, The Bookseller, Book Brunch, the Big Issue and The Economist.This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.