Rough Edges
On sale
4th June 2026
Price: £20
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.
Rough Edges is a rallying cry for the beauty and importance of our coast and its people.
PRAISE FOR UNDERCURRENT
‘A story of queer resistance, of community and of finding your own voice’
DAMIAN BARR
‘Important and beautifully lyrical’
THE TIMES
‘Haunting and powerful’
KATE MOSSE
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.
Rough Edges is a rallying cry for the beauty and importance of our coast and its people.
PRAISE FOR UNDERCURRENT
‘A story of queer resistance, of community and of finding your own voice’
DAMIAN BARR
‘Important and beautifully lyrical’
THE TIMES
‘Haunting and powerful’
KATE MOSSE
Reviews
Rough Edges brings the reality of severe coastal poverty into sharp focus in an urgent and compassionate blend of candid memoir and compelling literary reportage. Natasha Carthew writes with an insight and an acuity of vision that few can match, and the messages of Rough Edges land with great integrity. Rough Edges unflinchingly scrutinises the systematic inequalities wrecking coastal communities and sets out a vision in which people in the 'salt belt' shorelines of these islands can thrive
Bracing, insightful and compassionate, the book shines a light on communities too often unseen and unheard (not least in coastal nature-writing narratives). As the child of immigrants, I was also heartened to read Natasha Carthew's moving plea for a borderless world. Rough Edges ought to be required reading for UK politicians across the spectrum