Bella Bathurst: 5 books

"Bathurst is a restless, curious writer… After reading this book, I found myself listening in a richer and more interested way." — Guardian A profound, beautifully written exploration of sound by a young woman who lost her hearing, then regained it. In this surprising...

Bella Bathurst’s epic story of Robert Louis Stevenson’s ancestors and the building of the Scottish coastal lighthouses against impossible odds. ‘Whenever I smell salt water, I know that I am not far from one of the works of my ancestors,’ wrote Robert Louis Stevenson in 1880. ‘When the lights...

An “entertaining” historical investigation into the scavengers who have profited off the spoils of maritime disasters (The Washington Post).   Even today, Britain’s coastline remains a dangerous place. It is an island soaked by four separate seas, with shifting sand banks to the east, veiled...

From Alan Bennett's Baffled at a Bookcase, to Lucy Mangan's Library Rules, famous writers tell us all about how libraries are used and why they're important. Tom Holland writes about libraries in the ancient world, while Seth Godin describes what a library will look like in the future. Lionel Shriver...

A group of schoolgirls go off with two teachers on a field trip to the English countryside. They soon discover that the nearby town offers alcohol, drugs, and sex, at once tempting and terrifying. In this illicit, raw new world, isolated from the larger society and its familiar rules and repressions,...