Sea Roads

INNER SEAS explores the wildness and waterways of the west coast of Scotland: the otters, whales and seals, the bird life, the fishing boats and commercial sailing vessels. Nicolson weaves in histories of Vikings, highland chiefs, the interconnectedness of a place that might seem remote to us today but which is still intimately connected if you can travel by ocean. He looks at this supposedly ‘wild’ and ‘unspoilt’ landscape and dispels this fantasy by highlighting the environmental damage being done by dredgers, quarrymen and fishfarms. This inner sea is a test case for our modern relationship to nature. Will it ever be possible to accommodate a rich natural marine ecology in a place where our own use will undoubtedly remain heavy and persistent? Can we fit with nature? Can we undo the damage that has already been done? Can we find it in ourselves to make the inner sea good? Following on from Sea Room (about a group of offshore islands in the Hebrides), Seamanship (describing a voyage up the Atlantic shores of Britain and Ireland), The Seabird’s Cry (which celebrated the birds of ocean and headland) and Life Between the Tides (about the plants and creatures of the intertidal zone), THE INNER SEA completes a seaquintet that has been a quarter-century in the making.