About this Event
Join us with Natasha Carthew in conversation with Caroline Sanderson to discuss Rough Edges, a rallying cry for the beauty and importance of our coast and its people.
Beyond the picture postcards, Britain’s coastal communities are suffering.
Crowds flood the beaches during summer heatwaves, but they quickly vanish again, leaving behind drifts of rubbish and unstable seasonal jobs. Seaside property is in high demand but affordable only for landlords and gentrifiers. The cost-of-living crisis and the ongoing pains of austerity trap those at the vulnerable edges of our nation in poverty.
Having grown up in rural Cornwall, Natasha Carthew leaves the county in search of a new home. Travelling the country and exploring the villages, towns and cities of our coast, she meets the people fighting to keep these places alive. With fierce compassion, she shares their voices and their stories.
Natasha Carthew is a Cornish writer and poet who has ten books published across Bloomsbury, Quercus, Hodder and the National Trust, and short stories published with Virago, Chatto and Audible. Her greatly acclaimed Nero Award shortlisted Memoir Undercurrent: A Cornish Memoir of Poverty, Nature and Resilience was published with Hodder in 2023. She is known for writing on many socioeconomic issues, rural poverty and working-class representation in literature for several publications, podcasts and programmes including ITV, The Royal Society of Authors Journal, BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4, The Bookseller, The Guardian, The Quietus, The Observer, Mslexia, Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook, ALCS, The Big Issue, Dispatch Media, The Campaign to Protect Rural England and The Economist. Natasha is Founder/Director of The Working Class Writers Festival and The Nature Writing Prize for Working Class Nature Writers. She has collaborated with many organisations including The Booker Prize, The Women's Prize, FutureBook and the London Book Fair. Natasha guest edited the first ever working-class edition of The Bookseller and is a recipient of their Rising Star Award.
Caroline Sanderson is a writer and books journalist, and Associate Editor of The Bookseller where she has compiled the monthly New Titles preview of forthcoming non-fiction since 2000. An Associate Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund, Caroline is currently Writer in Residence at University Hospitals Tees NHS Foundation Trust. Her memoir – Listen With Father: How I Learned to Love Classical Music – was published in July 2025.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Waterstones, 11 Islington Green, London, United Kingdom
GBP 5.00 to GBP 22.00
