Dark, Salt, Clear

A captivating, lyrical and deeply discerning portrait of life in the Cornish town of Newlyn, the largest working fishing port in Britain, from a brilliant new writer

There is the Cornwall Lamorna knew as a child – the idyllic, folklore-rich place her mother is from and where she spent her summer holidays. Then there is the Cornwall she discovers when, feeling increasingly dislocated in London, she travels to Newlyn, a fishing village near Land’s End. This Cornwall is messier and harder, offering more life and humour than she could have imagined.

Immersing herself in the rhythms of this community shaped by the sea, Ash finds herself on a week-long trawler trip. Out on the water, miles from the coast, she learns how fishing requires you to confront who you are and what it is that holds you to the land. An evocative journey of personal discovery and an insight into the UK’s fishing industry, End of the Line confirms Ash as a strikingly original new voice.

'One of Spring’s most hotly anticipated titles' OBSERVER

'Lamorna Ash is a beautiful prose stylist – precise, perceptive, humane and sensitive – who somehow manages to write in a way that is both earthy and poetic. Her debut book – full of fish and blood and salt and oilskins – marks the birth of a new star of non-fiction' WILLIAM DALRYMPLE