Sea Sagas of the North: Travel and Tales by Warming Waters

with Prof. Jules Pretty

7pm Friday 7th October

St Mary’s Church Annexe

Wivenhoe

Tickets £5.00 incl beverage.

Jules Pretty joins us to speak about his new book, Sea Sagas of the North: Travel and Tales by Warming Waters, which will be published on 21st September 2022.

“There are shadows on the warming, northern seas. Long ago, refugees fled Doggerland when seas encroached. Now rising seas threaten the low-lying shores once again.

Jules Pretty tells moving stories from Iceland, Norway’s Lofoten islands, Denmark, eastern England, Lindisfarne, Shetland, St Kilda and the Faroes. His touching tales weave a rich cultural tapestry from sagas, the heroic cliff rescues of deep-water fishermen by Icelanders, how Vikings and sheep left so few trees, the miraculous escape of Danish Jews to Sweden from Denmark in 1943, the rise of Abbess Hildr of Whitby, the enslaved Grimsby orphan boys and life on Doggerland itself. He asks how can we live wisely and well with nature and each other as the fire and flood of Ragnarok looms.”

Publisher’s Synopsis

The book also includes maps, a glossary of Norse Gods, timeline, brief notes on walks connected with each chapter, stories, chapter notes and bibliography.

About the Author

Professor Jules Pretty, OBE is based at the borders of the counties of Suffolk and Essex in eastern England. He is Professor of Environment and Society at the University of Essex, Director of the Centre for Public and Policy Engagement, and host of the podcast Louder Than Words. Jules also presides over the Essex Wildlife Trust, and is a Trustee of WWF-UK, and Chair of the External Advisory Board for the Sustainable Intensification Lab at Kansas State University.

His previous publications include Sea Sagas of the North (2022), The East Country (2017), The Edge of Extinction (2014), This Luminous Coast (2011), The Earth Only Endures (2007), Agri-Culture (2002) and Regenerating Agriculture (1995). One new book is forthcoming for 2023: The Low-Carbon Good Life.

Praise for Sea Sagas of the North

‘An astonishing achievement…  The crackle of language, the word play, the strange music of unfamiliar words. Magnificent.’
Richard Mabey

‘Wonderful; you speak them out loud while silently reading. Such a bold and wide-sweeping work.’
Julia Blackburn, author of Time Song: Searching for Doggerland

‘I am blown away by the seriousness and achievement; the illustrations are lyrical and minimalist.’

Ken Worpole, author of The New English Landscape and Last Landscapes

‘Intense, ambitious, flowing rhythms and language, evocative of my times spent afloat around the Thames Estuary, and life remembered here on the Colne and Blackwater in memory and myth.’

 Fabian Bush, boat-builder, Rowhedge, Essex