BAPTON BOOKS

Forthcoming:

 

Britain By the Slice:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Owing to Mr Pyle’s heart attack and treble bypass in late 2014, the 1914 book has been delayed so that he may recover (and because, as Mr Pyle recovers, Mr Wemyss has assumed added duties).

  Evensong, the sequel to Cross and Poppy, is however well in hand, and shall be published this Summer.

  And Mr Wemyss announces a new and further solo project, with an expected publication date of September 2017: Britain By the Slice, in two volumes.

  In this new series, Mr Wemyss surveys Britain by gridline: from North to South, from off Shetland to Kinnaird Head and due South to Dancing Ledge on the Channel coast; and from East to West from the White Cliffs to Devon’s Saunton Sands, donning the mantle of a modern Cobbett, a 21st Century Celia Fiennes, and rambling through deep history, psychogeography, and numinous landscapes.

  Mr Wemyss intends to do precisely what it says on the tin. To sail from off Mainland (Shetland), due South past Fair Isle and North Ronaldsay to Kinnaird Head in Aberdeenshire; to tramp South to Newburgh and sail thence past Aberdeen to Needles Eye at Berwick-upon-Tweed; and thence to slog due Southwards and so – over the Wall and through the Dales, through the North and the Midlands, the Peak District to the Cotswolds – to the West Country and the Channel chop, ending on the Jurassic Coast at Dancing Ledge on the Dorset shore. And, in the companion volume, to come ashore at Samphire Hoe, by Shakespeare Cliff, and journey ever Westwards, from the gardens of Kent and the ancient Weald, through Saxon and cricketing Hants and ancient Wiltshire landscapes, cidery Somerset, chalk downs and wild moors, by Exmoor’s hem to Saunton Sands on the North Devon coast and the long Atlantic surge, haunted by Kingsley’s privateers and Kipling’s Stalky, Beetle, and M’Turk.

  From butterflies to best bitter, ghosts and legends and local cheeses, historic events to literary associations to Roman remains and ancient henges, Mr Wemyss is determined, in Britain By the Slice, to interpret, to celebrate, and to record Britain with a son’s love, a keen eye, and a poet’s heart.

  A Kickstarter project has now been set up to cover incidental expenses attendant upon Mr Wemyss’ absence on this project whilst Mr Pyle is on medical leave, so that there is someone to assist with editing and proofing whilst Mr Wemyss is fell-walking with a notebook in hand.