{"product_id":"the-swordfish-and-the-star-life-on-cornwalls-most-treacherous-stretch-of-coast-9781784700997","title":"The Swordfish and the Star: Life on Cornwall's","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Penwith Peninsula in Cornwall is where the land ends. In \u003ci\u003eThe Swordfish and the Star \u003c\/i\u003eGavin Knight takes us into this huddle of grey roofs at the edge of the sea at the beginning of the twenty-first century. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe catches the stories of a whole community, but especially those still working this last frontier: the Cornish fishermen. These are the dreamers and fighters who every day prepare for battle with the vast grey Atlantic. Cornwall and its seas are brought to life, mixing drinking and drugs and sea spray, moonlit beaches and shattering storms, myth and urban myth. The result is an arresting tapestry of a place we thought we knew; the precarious reality of life in Cornwall today emerges from behind our idyllic holiday snaps and picture postcards. Even the quaint fishermen’s pubs on the quay at Newlyn, including the Swordfish and its neighbour the Star, turn out to be places where squalls can blow up, and down again, in an instant. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBased on immersive research and rich with the voices of a cast of remarkable characters, this is an eye-opening, dramatic, poignant account of life on Britain’s most dangerous stretch of coast.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePraise for \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eHood Rat \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'A gripping novelistic immersion' Louis Theroux\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'\u003c\/b\u003eA must-read' Owen Jones\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'\u003c\/b\u003eBritain's\u003ci\u003e Gomorrah'\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eIndependent\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAn alternative perspective, telling the stories of the fishermen who work on this treacherous stretch of coast, tales gathered over two years of interviews, many conducted in the Swordfish and Star of the title -- Tom Robbins * Financial Times Books of the Year *\u003cbr\u003eA terrific new book about a hard and dangerous way of life * Esquire, Book of the Year *\u003cbr\u003eKnight has gone in search of old smells and danger and found them in spades. There are extraordinarily evocative stories here, of the mad bravado of scarred, de-fingered fishermen and the stoicism of their women... As a cross-section of west Cornish lives, a celebration of brave eccentricity and a prose illustration of the way those lives overlap and interrelate, \u003ci\u003eThe Swordfish and the Star\u003c\/i\u003e takes some beating -- Patrick Gale * Guardian *\u003cbr\u003eKnight recounts fascinating detail, but also shows a novelist's skill in painting a vivid picture of real Cornwall and real Cornish people: Shane Meadows meets \u003ci\u003eThe Perfect Storm\u003c\/i\u003e * Esquire *\u003cbr\u003e[Knight] is as adept with words as his hero Nutty Noah the Cadgwith ring-netter is with a shoal of pilchards ... exhilarating -- Tom Fort * Literary Review *","brand":"Vintage Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47851288199511,"sku":"9781784700997","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781784700997.jpg?v=1710632802","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/the-swordfish-and-the-star-life-on-cornwalls-most-treacherous-stretch-of-coast-9781784700997","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}