Looking to Sea

Looking to Sea is an alternative history of Britain in the twentieth century, told through the prism of ten iconic artworks of the sea, one for each decade.

'We see nothing truly until we understand it.' John Constable

An alternative history of Britain in the twentieth century, Looking to Sea is an exquisite work of cultural, artistic and philosophical history.

From Vanessa Bell's Studland Beach, one of the first modernist paintings in Britain, to Paul Nash's work bearing the scars of his experience in the trenches and Martin Parr's photographs of seaside resorts in the 1980s that tackle ideas of class and deprivation, Looking to Sea embraces ideas from modernism and the sublime, the impact of the world wars and colonialism, to issues crucial to our world today like the environment and nationhood.

Looking to Sea is an astonishingly perceptive portrait of the twentieth century. Art critic Lily Le Brun brings a fresh eye, acute observation and challenges the reader to find a new way to look at the history of our island nation.

'Looking to Sea is a remarkable and compelling book. It is both a wonderfully sustained mapping of the intersection between artists, writers and the sea and a meditation on belonging and displacement. I loved it.' Edmund de Waal

(P) 2022 Hodder & Stoughton Limited