Jon Gower – “The Turning Tide” and Creative Writing Workshop

No stranger to Fishguard, acclaimed Welsh author Jon Gower returns next month to discuss his latest work at Ar Ymyl y Tir 2023 On Land’s Edge Festival.
The Turning Tide has been described as ‘a hymn to a sea passage of world-historical importance’.

Combining social and cultural history, nature-writing, travelogue and politics, the Cardiff-based writer charts the divided but interconnected waters of the Irish Sea – from the narrow North Channel through St George’s Channel to where the Celtic sea opens out into the wide Atlantic which has carried both Vikings and saints; invasion forces, royals and rebels; writers, musicians and fishermen.

He notes that the Irish Sea has a turbulent history to match the violence of its storms as he takes the reader to the great shipyards of Belfast and through the mass exodus of the starving during the Irish Famine in coffin boats bound for America.

He follows the migrations of working men and women looking for work in England and tells the tales of more casual travellers: sometimes seasick, often homesick too.

The Irish Sea is also a place with an abundant natural history. The rarest sea bird in Europe visits its coasts in summer while the rarest goose wings in during winter.

The Turning Tide navigates waters teeming with life, filled with seals and salt-tanged stories and surveyed by seabirds. Lyrically written and fizzing with curiosity, this is a remarkable and far-reaching book.

In addition to hosting a creative writing workshop in Welsh, Jon Gower will be discussing The Turning Tide in conversation with Sue Lewis on Sunday, September 24th.