The Liquid Continent

‘A Mediterranean trilogy to cherish … Woodsworth has a lively, accessible style’
Guardian

‘[Woodsworth’s] an astute reporter with a dry humour and an impressive eye for detail’
The Sunday Telegraph

‘Curiosity is what makes him [Woodsworth] a bona fide traveller… To history’s habit of encroaching on his Mediterranean travels he reacts with a surprise which is positively touching.’
The Spectator

‘A beautifully written trilogy’
Wanderlust

Combining travel narrative, history and reflection on contemporary Mediterranean life, Woodsworth finds an intimacy, a garrulous warmth and a near-tribal sociability that belongs uniquely to the cries on the fringe of the Mediterranean. This sea should not be seen as an empty space surrounded by Europe, Asia and Africa, but as a single entity, place from whose coastlines people look not outwards, to this country or that capital, but inwards over the water to each other.

Setting out from Alexandra on a journey by lively unpredictable encounters, Nicholas Wordsworth discovers traces of an older, more sophisticated existence and asks what these vibrant cosmopolitan cities and their inhabitants owe to the sea.

NICHOLAS WOODSWORTH was born in Ottawa, Canada in 1953 and grew up in Africa and South-East Asia. He was Africa Correspondent for the Financial Times in the late 1980s, and served as the FT Weekend’s staff travel writer from 1990 to 2003. He is the author of Seeking Provence and Crossing Jerusalem.