Havergey
2017
First Published
3.29
Average Rating
164
Number of Pages
The search for an ideal society has intrigued us for thousands of years. Politicians, writers and philosophers of every generation have proposed their views, from Plato's Republic and Sir Thomas More's Utopia, to William Morris' News from Nowhere and H G Wells A Modern Utopia. In Havergey, the acclaimed poet and novelist visits the remote island and explores the idea of utopia through various objects in the landscape. Each of these human interventions, built by different generations of island dweller, provokes Burnside's thoughts on energy, agriculture and housing, forming an extraordinary and highly original book about place and how the physical marks we leave are often expressions of our own sense of utopia, in our private and public lives.
Avg Rating
3.29
Number of Ratings
48
5 STARS
15%
4 STARS
21%
3 STARS
48%
2 STARS
13%
1 STARS
4%
goodreads
Author
John Burnside
Author · 28 books
John Burnside is the author of nine collections of poetry and five works of fiction. Burnside has achieved wide critical acclaim, winning the Whitbread Poetry Award in 2000 for The Asylum Dance which was also shortlisted for the Forward and T.S. Eliot prizes. Born in Scotland, he moved away in 1965, returning to settle there in 1995. In the intervening period he worked as a factory hand, a labourer, a gardener and, for ten years, as a computer systems designer. He now lives in Fife with his wife and children and teaches Creative Writing, Literature and Ecology courses at the University of St. Andrews. [Author photo © Norman McBeath]
