THE KINGDOM BY THE SEA: A Journey Around the Coast of Great Britian

by Paul Theroux ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 31, 1983

After The Great Railway Bazaar and The Old Patagonian Express, Bournemouth and Aberdeen are pretty tame--and fairly depressing--territory. But Theroux, tired of London and surprisingly little-traveled after eleven years of largely English residence, decided to follow the British coast, on foot or by train; and his annotated itinerary, though neither as exotic nor as memorably peopled as those previous journeys, offers a gently engaging, utterly unromantic look at eroding shorelines . . .and ways of life. Things are unlovely right from the start: on the May Day train to Margate skinheads assault the genteel seaside-goers with noisy obscenity. (""Daddy, why are those men saying 'fuck off'?"") Dreary resort-towns predominate as Theroux trudges clockwise. The bed-and-breakfast phenomenon is, at its rare best, ""like a perfect marriage; at its worst, it was like a night with terrible in-laws."" All along the coast there seem to be old people in parked cars staring seaward, ""as sad captains fixing their attention upon the waves."" And so it goes--from Portsmouth to Plymouth to tourist-hating Cornwall--with talk of the new Falklands War, a tense little dialogue with a racist South African couple, and one or two nice surprises. (Grand, elegant Weymouth; the Teignmouth Operatic Society's production of The Pajama Game.) Then, after a visit to a holiday camp that reminds Theroux of Jonestown, it's on to Wales: the ubiquitous caravans, the ""mildly stunned and slaphappy"" people, a visit with Jan Morris, and a nightmarish night in an empty hotel (one of many) among the drunken ""savages"" of Cardigan. Next: up the west coast--from Liverpool's worst, racism-scarred neighborhood to Orwell's Wigan (no unjust working conditions now--because there's no work), with a glimpse of ""the scariest-looking nuclear reactor I had ever seen."" And, after an unsympathetic side-trip to Ulster's ""tribal warfare,"" there's the scenic, Scottish-coast extravagaza, a fine ride in a post bus, fear and loathing in boom-town Aberdeen (expensive, dull, selfish), and--amid a rail strike--down the east coast to Southend's pier. The overall impression? ""If I had only one word to describe the expression on England's face I would have said: insulted."" A trifle cute, a trifle patronizing--but often vivid, with that grand ear for dialogue, and an effective dark complement to Frank Entwisle's cheerier Abroad in England (p. 689).

Pub Date: Oct. 31, 1983

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1983

Categories: NONFICTION